Nightfall Cassiopeia 2013

If you haven’t meet a Gothic Metal band that able to upfront their “metal” part more than anything to its “gothic” counterpart, you need to listen to Nightfall. They kind of melodic blending into dark, doomish gothic growling. They are Greek compatriot, long established since 1991 by founding member Efthimis Karadimas . With that long history, Nightfall crossed fate with several Greek talents such as Bob Katsionis as we known in Firewind today. As you can see from my writing, I am not familiar with the band and therefore rely my review on this sole album only.  For our 2013 late new year gift, Nightfall released Cassiopeia. Notes to this release also included the addition of guitarist Constantine into their line up, Constantine is current guitarist for Mystic Prophecy as well.

In the opener called Phaethon, we quickly introduced to a straightforward and minimalist gothic licks that leading us into a sudden changes of key for the opening verse. For the following song that almost identical twin as Phaethon is Oberon and Titania. The band also put in front Oberon and Titania as their representative showcase track of Cassiopeia. It is a riff leading song, with enough groove to let the melody stay in your mind for a while. The same receipt repeated in other tracks, notable is The Reptile Gods, and Hyperion which all based their opening to the thematic riff. We also get the power metal’s minor and galloping tempo in Stellar Parallax and Hubris. The other approach is the classic Gothic melodic lick as the leading tune, practised in The Nightwatch and Akhenaton, the 8th Pharaoh of the 18 Dynasty. That’s true Cassiopeia rich in mythological references as their lyrical theme, suitable to the music very much.

In the microphone duty is vocalist Efthimis Karadimas, our fifty minutes long companion that comes with a  low and dark doom-ish voice. The whole album demonstrated a solid chemistry between the duo guitarist Evan Hensley and Constantine, both take turn in converting minimalist licks into powerful harmony. That’s to say, the overall listening experience from Cassiopeia is enjoyable. This Gothic / Doom metal genre tends to gone monotonous in my experience, but Cassiopeia really gives enough tricks to cast away that repetitive feature and make the album an interesting darkened melodic metal journey. If you are into the genre, this should be enough to be called an excellent album.

Metalharem class: ******** eight stars out of ten

Nightfall – Cassiopeia 2013
Buy it here

01. Phaethon
02. Oberon & Titania
03. Colonize Cultures
04. The Nightwatch
05. Stellar Parallax
06. Hubris
07. The Reptile Gods
08. Hyperion
09. Akhenaton, The 9th Pharaoh Of The 18th Dynasty
10. The Sand Reckoner
11. Astropolis

NIGHTFALL is:
Efthimis Karadimas - Vocals
Evan Hensley - Guitar
Constantine - Guitar
Stathis Ridis - Bass
Stathis Kassios - Keyboards
Jörg Uken - Drums