Review: Nocturnal Rites “In a Time of Blood and Fire” [Megarock Records]

Considering how radical it can result, it is uncommon to see transitions from death metal to power metal, as in the case of Nocturnal Rites. The fact that they kept their moniker regardless of this transition makes things more interesting. Nonetheless, for whatever reason, the band bet for satanic and dark lyrics, which is an uncommon orientation for a power metal band. Cases are few. Running Wild‘s early years are an example, though it is still a particular case given that their sound was a sort of Venom-Accept-Priest-Maiden crossover. Nocturnal Rites, however, took the most melodic side of these bands and created a different concept that was more oriented towards the 90s trends, such as those imposed by Helloween and Gamma Ray.

The album is generally well-done, but it has flaws that were fortunately corrected in the next release. Firstly, the production f**cks off the overall album’s sound. As a result, the drums are not shown in their prime, and instead, they sound as if they were taken from a low-definition recording, so the numbers tend to sound too shiny. Further, Zackrisson’s vocals are also a victim of this production issue. Although his style as a vocalist is underrated, production, unfortunately, does not help prove this point as they sound too high-pitched. Leaving that aside, guitar playing is great, their songwriting concept is well-developed, and their songs are memorable; however, this album was released when pretty much everything about power metal was written during the last decade by bigger names like Rage, Running Wild, and Helloween. That said, Nocturnal Rites‘ debut is a significant first step that managed to rescue the last hopes for decent power metal stuff, but there was too much work to be done.