ALBUM REVIEW: Hellish Expectations – Midnight

The title of the sixth full-length album from MIDNIGHT – Hellish Expectations – could be none more fitting, as the presumption of the one-man band led by the multi-talented Athenar delivering anything other than their high octane brand of raw, blasphemous and punked up metal mayhem is a void opinion. You know exactly what you are getting with the music of MIDNIGHT and that, of course, is part of their charm; when the music is as good as it is on this record, that familiarity is as comforting as the full steam ahead riffs and gritty vocals that emit from the speakers throughout the course of its runtime.

The opening gambit that is Expect Total Hell is another prophetic title and starts the album off with with a bang, coming on like early 80s VENOM in their prime, and from then on in, total metal carnage is unleashed and the power of the music is unrelenting. Songs like Slave To The Blade, Deliver Us To Devil and Mercyless Slaughtor encapsulate everything that makes MIDNIGHT such a special band, while others like Masked And Deadly and Dungeon Lust have those added aspects of sleaze that the band have made their own. All those elements together add up to a ripping and energetic listening experience and when it all comes to an end with the crushingly anthemic F.O.A.L., (with its glorious “Fuck Off And Live” chant), you can finally catch your breath after the nonstop aural assault that MIDNIGHT have just delivered.

This is less a conventional album, and more a nonstop consummation of blazing riffs, sordid grooves and high octane metal glory that Athenar delivers on all aspects of in the songs presented here with style, and then some. With a band as prolific as MIDNIGHT – as well as their six full-length albums, they have so many split releases, live albums and collections that it is simply staggering – it is extremely admirable and impressive for them to be still making such vital and powerful music as they do on Hellish Expectations.

This is metal done the right way with the spirit of bands like VENOM, MOTÖRHEAD and GEHENNA coursing through its veins and it continues that lineage brilliantly, delivered with a passion that cannot be faked. MIDNIGHT are the real deal and you can tell from just one listen how much Athenar loves what he is doing. With Hellish Expectations, Athenar has hit blackened gold once again and proven that nobody is doing straight ahead speed metal delivered with a punk attitude and an essential raw nature quite as well as MIDNIGHT at the moment.

Rating: 8/10

Hellish Expectations is out now via Metal Blade Records.

Like MIDNIGHT on Facebook.