ALBUM REVIEW: Voices Of The Kronian Moon – Nite
San Francisco’s NITE are perhaps one of the more promising acts of the Bay Area’s underground scene. Featuring members from celebrated acts like SATAN’S WRATH, SERPENTS OF DAWN, DAWNBRINDGER and ANAXIMANDER, the band quickly laid down an incredibly solid template for their blend of black and heavy metal with their debut album Darkness Silence Mirror Flame, bringing together anthemic heavy metal hooks and caustic blackened vocals with impressive results. The band’s second record Voices Of The Kronian Moon bears many of the same glorious riffs and acidic vocals of its predecessor, but also develops the band’s sound into harsher territories, making for an album that is punchy and punishing in equal measure.
Acheron kicks things off with an epic piece of heavy metal, with slick riffs and dense rhythms acting as a great backdrop to opaque vocals. It’s a contrast that works surprisingly well, and starts proceedings in a grandiose fashion. Kronian Moon maintains the melodic guitar work that made the album’s opener so impressive, with the leads again providing lots of soaring flourishes with a classic metal feel without feeling stale.
Last Scorpion is a more energised take on the style of the first two tracks, but with a decidedly darker edge, a more dominant vocal performance, and thick guitar and bass work lending a brooding component to the music without sacrificing any of the excellent hooks. Liber Ex Doctrina deviates from the established formula somewhat, adopting cleaner guitar tones and a more measured pace which add an ethereal quality to the music. Although this song certainly has its weightier heavy metal influences peppered throughout, this is a far more hypnotic offering that adds some variety into the song-writing.
Heliopolis, with its anthemic guitars, authoritative drumming and sludgy bass, packs a significant punch right out of the gate. Even the vocals, which up until this point have had a muted quality to them, have a visceral edge that injects some depth into the already substantial sound. It’s a catchier affair that leaves its mark on the record at large. Edge Of The Night proves to be a galloping monolith that brims with energy whilst making use of differing tones and a few subtle experimental touches throughout. These add a distinct twist to a tried and tested heavy metal trope which helps give this a classic feel whilst at the same time putting the band’s own unique stamp on it.
The chunky, groove-laden Thorns is another highlight of the album’s second half, mixing in jarring chords for a sharp, discordant sound to the music perfectly befitting the song’s title. The disjointed guitar and bass work, coupled with delicate drums and spartan, caustic vocals, lends this particular song a more rabid aspect, once again marrying solid heavy metal with bleaker, brooding motifs to excellent effect. It makes this one of the more imaginative and engrossing slabs of music on the record. The Trident takes the jangling, ethereal components of its predecessor, and applies a rhythmic approach to them, with huge, chugging passages broken up by dizzying, hypnotic moments which work exceptionally well. Again, it’s one of the few times on this album where the emotive weight of the music matches up with the delivery of the vocals. It’s a fantastic, eerie conclusion to the record that is decidedly more adventurous, song-writing-wise, than the album was when it started.
Both halves of this album are great for very different reasons; the first four tracks have a generous amount of brilliant, epic hooks, but other than the harshness of the vocals, there’s very little to make listeners think of this as an album with any black metal elements to it. The latter four take the music into darker and more experimental fare, giving this album its own distinct musical voice that helps to make these latter offerings stand apart for all the right reasons. In essence, the first half showcases a band working to a formula, and admittedly doing it extremely well, and the second sees a more confident version of the band expanding their musical horizons and cementing their own style. Both sides of this album’s sound are excellent, but if NITE had managed to blend their catchier and more expansive sides more effectively on some of the earlier tracks this record would have been even more impressive than it already is.
Rating: 8/10
Voices Of The Kronian Moon is out now via Season Of Mist.
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