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Nocturnal Rites is one of the oldest Swedish bands still
around today. The band was formed in 1990 but only the guitarist Fredrik
Mannberg and the bass player Nils Eriksson remain from the original line-up.
They have been accused by many as just following the power metal wave and
therefore being trendy but I don't really agree with that since they are
playing more straight-forward and aggressive than most other bands of the
genre. They have found a way of playing power metal without falling into the
trap of clichés and cheesiness as many have done before. "Shadowland", an
appropriate title for a band named Nocturnal Rites, is their fifth album but
it is the first one that they didn't record in their home town Umeå, far up
in the north of Sweden. Instead they chose to record with Daniel Bergstrand at
Dug-Out Studios in Uppsala. The result is one of the heaviest productions that
Nocturnal Rites have had for a long time. Without state of the art guitar
work, powerful vocals and a heavy sound I find it hard to appreciate power
metal to the fullest but luckily Nocturnal Rites have gathered enough of every
ingredience necessary during their long career to impress me with a very nice
album. I am not that fond of the fantasy cover art from the Russian artist Leo
Hao but other than that I very much enjoy this release. The album is very even
but "Eyes Of The Dead" and "Revelation" are both very strong tracks that
stick out a little from the
rest.
| Tracklist |
1. Eyes Of The Dead 2. |
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Shadowland 3. Invincible 4. Revelation 5. Never Die |
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6. Underworld 7. Vengeance 8. Faceless God 9. Birth |
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Of Chaos 10. The Watcher |
: 46.45
| Buy other Nocturnal Rites albums |
