VELVET THUNDER

Hailing from Madrid in Spain, Nightfear is a heavy metal band that came together in 2008 with Apocalypse being the bands third release. I have not heard either of the first two albums but Apocalypse shows a band delivering power metal in the traditional German/Scandinavian fashion, being drum and bass heavy with the usual fast and furious guitars and an active and strident vocal throughout.

I believe that the band has kept the same line-up throughout their career with Lorenzo Mutiozabal on vocals, Manuel Moreno on bass, Ismael Retana and Ángel Fernández on guitars with and the delightfully named Osckar Bravo on drums. The stable personnel count helps the band grow and develop together and the new album is a fully formed and perfectly developed metal album full of well crafted songs and lots of guitars working in harmony and then trading killer leads in true Judas Priest fashion. Reference points are obviously Priest, Helloween, Primal Fear, Gamma Ray and Iron Maiden and these bands have obviously been a big influence of Nightfear too.

The music is heavy most certainly but they have not sacrificed melody and this is a most listenable album and very easily received as the song are all well composed and of the usual epic variety and this band does epic very, very well. Lorenzo Mutiozabel performs excellently with this powerful voice and the English lyrics are delivered impeccably with maybe just a slight hint of a Spanish accent but this adds to his delivery and in no way detracts. He holds your attention throughout and when the guitarists open up then it is like the very gates of hell being opened up. Check out Psichokiller just to see how much you can fit into a 4-minute track or the closing Angels Of Apocalypse, a stunning and rather fitting end of world roller coaster.

The boys most certainly can play and they take every opportunity to showcase their talents. Nightfear has produced an album that gets better with each play and one that insists that you check out the back catalogue as well.