Night
High Tides-Distant Skies

I reviewed Night some years ago, it was their self-titled debut and I wasn’t very impressed by it then. Years has gone since then and the silly member names seems to have changed, the cover and logo looks better and indications is that they have left the NWOBHM for more seventies styled early metal or whatever you want to call it. The have the same producer on this album as the previous and you might say that they continue on the same path as with that album. The press material states that it is easy to grow fond of Night, but is it really?

Stylewise it is retro rock, they are as nostalgic as before, but this album is less of an imitating album but rather an homage to the past with fresher production and modern sound. Good production, and good vocals are reflections I make when listening through the album. They sound a lot more interesting than last time I reviewed them, but they don’t sound original and sound more like a gaggle of classic bands; like Blue Öyster Cult, seventies Judas Priest or Scorpions, Phil Lynott, Mark Knopfler and many more – it seems like finding a voice of their own isn’t very important to these guys, might be more fun to imitate old favourites.

I think that High Tides-Distant Skies is a good album, pretty enjoyable to listen to. The songs are good and the album really works, until you start listening and start thinking about it. Wasn’t that Don’t Fear the Reaper? Struck me quickly when going through this album and that is not the only time I draw parallels to other songs from the distant past. And soon I begin to wonder if these guys have a soul and a mind of their own at all, maybe they are just robots or some AI algorithms – creatively boring are they whatever they are, but they are good craftsmen and that will probably take them pretty far in a world that is more often looking backwards than it is looking forwards.

It is an album for all you nostalgic people out there, those of you who live under the illusion that it was better back then – it probably wasn’t, but these guys make it seem pretty nice. I like this album; it is pretty enjoyable, and it is probably worth checking if you like the classics. My biggest impression was the need to listen to Don’t Fear the Reaper, the album itself isn’t very memorable.

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