Midnight – Rebirth by Blasphemy
January 24th, 2020
Blackened Heavy Metal
Metal Blade Records
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Midnight, the one man blackened force of crushing evil headed by multi-instrumentalist Athenar, has been languishing in relative underground obscurity ever since their formation in 2003. However, with the release of 2011’s Satanic Royalty the band started picking up a bit of steam. Nine years and two full length albums later the group has begun to break into the mainstream consciousness of the genre, especially following the release of 2020’s Rebirth by Blasphemy.
When it comes to the music I make and the music I like listening to the most, no band reaches the same heights as Darkthrone. That reverence for old school metal combined with the tinges of black metal just gets me revved up and ready for action. The only issue is that I always felt that other bands doing that sound were hard to come by. So when my girlfriend turned me on to Midnight I fell in love instantly. After a couple of years of listening to them I can honestly say that, in my opinion of course, Rebirth by Blasphemy is Athenar’s best album yet.
The album opens with the signature “Ugh!” from Athenar as a gnarly 80’s speed metal riff explodes over the pummeling drums and the heavy bass that chugs along like a goddamned freight train. It’s clear as soon as Athenar actually starts singing that he’s really honed his vocal talents on here, sounding leagues better than he has on previous releases. Every time I listen to this opening track, “Fucking Speed and Darkness”, I can’t help but sing along to the chorus, “Living for the speed, breathing for the darkness, spreading like disease, fucking speed and darkness!” Towards the bridge of the song we get an amazingly catchy Venom-esque series of riffs that remain one of my favourite moments of this album. On top of all that the production is cleaner and more polished than it has been in the past, but it still maintains a bit of a gritty vibe, and it’s clear that Midnight are on their A-game with this record.
This album is chock full of savage riffage that calls to mind old school bands from the 80’s like Venom and Accept, with a very no holds barred attitude towards the guitar work. Oftentimes the rhythm guitar will strum along atop the drums and bass while Athenar adds another melodic lead over everything else, such as in the intro to the title track, “Rebirth by Blasphemy”, which sounds a little similar to the 007 theme song. There are other moments where he’ll pull off some high pitched squeals like in the intro to “Escape the Grave” or some truly ripping guitar solos that call to mind the glory days of 70’s hard rock like Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin, such as on both aforementioned tracks or on “Warning from the Reaper”.
The most worthy of mention guitar sections, however, are definitely on “The Sounds of Hell”, a song which Athenar described as an ode to the music he grew up listening to. Almost every riff on here is a reference to a classic rock or metal song from way back when. I can’t place every melody on here because my memory sucks but there’s an obvious reference to Deep Purple’s “Highway Star” with the little bass run in the second verse.
The drumming on here is very bare bones and punk rock in a way that works exceptionally well for this style of music. Athenar plays his kit in a super straightforward way with no flashiness to be found, but that only serves to drive home the primitivism of this album and Midnight’s sound in general. For example, the song “Devil’s Excrement” is mostly just a one-two punk beat on the ride and snare with a one-two-three beat going in time with Athenar’s scream of the song’s title during the chorus, and rarely does that beat change the entire time. There’s also the song “Rising Scum” which starts off with a sort of Def Leppard-esque tom and snare beat which is heavy as shit, slow and simple, and almost doomy. While complexity and technicality are often the mark of what people consider to be “good drumming” in the world of metal, the to-the-point-ness of Athenar’s drum abilities on here serve the punk rock attitude of this record exceptionally.
As mentioned before Athenar has certainly improved his vocal capabilities and sound over the course of the last decade. Comparing how he sounds on here to how he sounds on Complete and Total Hell is like night and day. While he still keeps things punk rock and vicious, unchained like Venom’s Cronos, he has a lot more control over his screams. He knows how to sound like he’s retching up some sort of coagulated mass of bloody vomit and bile while still sounding audible and lyrically discernible. There are moments like on “Rising Scum” where his voice will be layered to sound like a marching battalion of demons screaming “Rah!” with every step of their bootheels. A little bit of reverb here and there also gives his voice a bit of an old-school thrash metal quality to it, especially on “Warning from the Reaper”, where it sounds just a tiny bit cavernous.
With increased production quality, improved vocal skills, catchy and memorable riffs and just all around great songwriting Midnight have knocked it out of the park again with another stellar release. Though some may disagree on the grounds that their sound is a bit too polished in comparison to their more raw early releases, I think this is exactly the direction Midnight should be going in. In some ways I’d compare them to other bands like Kvelertak who are taking the old school rock and roll sound and combining it with a dark black metal flavour to create a new wave of blackened heavy metal that in my opinion is one of the most exciting things going on in the metal world right now. Midnight is poised to get a lot bigger. As my girlfriend put it, “They’ve got all the right aspects, they should be HUGE!” and honestly, she’s completely right.
Final Verdict: 9/10
Awesome
Favourite Tracks:
“Fucking Speed and Darkness”
“Rising Scum”
“You Can Drag Me Through Fire”
~ Akhenaten
Where Strides The Behemoth? 