In case the recent surplus of hair raising releases delivered via today’s heavy metal torchwielders (Vultures Vengeance, Morax, Tower, Kuenring just to name a few) has led us to believe it’s not that hard to serve up a trad-platter that both evokes the auld ways and blazes a path forward, let Midnatt’s Skräckfylld Förtjusning serve as a reminder that it is, in fact, incredibly hard. Which is to say, even a perfectly competent and well studied group of players, which this Swedish quartet most assuredly is, can still fall short of the mark currently being set by the style’s big boppers.
Midnatt play street level trad/heavy that pays forward its debt the the genre’s forefathers by fastidiously stripping their compositions of the slightest whiff of bullcrap. If you’re in the business of knocking around lists of chancer bands who plied their trade during the micro-moment when NWOBHM was shedding the ‘N’ but thrash had yet to fully flower, then you know what I’m talking about. Which means you also probably know the feeling of tracking down those particular albums and the exhilaration of preparing to hit play on what must be a forgotten legend. And so then you’ve probably also experienced the slight comedown that hits when you re-learn the hard lesson that, for the most part, the best and biggest heavy metal albums earned their status fair and square.
And so, no, Midnatt has not produced an essential.
“Why would a reviewer make the point of saying someone’s *not* a genius?”
Because now that I’ve dispensed with the cold/critical assessment, I would like to tell you how much I appreciate what Midnatt is doing.
Working at a steady pace to produce a demo in 2022, a split with Overture in 2024 and now a full length in 2026–just look at that consistency, that symmetry, that commitment to upping the ante!–Midnatt have rounded into form as an act at the very least worthy of contributing to the bumper crop of albums our beloved heavy metal needs to subsist. They prove that the gods of thunder are still dragging kids by the scruff of their necks into garages and bidding them “riff wickedly for me.” Midnatt heeds that call.
The sound of this recording? It is so choice. The guitars are crisp as an autumn day with just the right amount of mid-range to evoke the scent of tobacced fingerprints roasting on an amp tube. The room reflections on the drums invite you into a rehearsal space setting you may have inhabited in the past and hope to once again. How they deploy this sound, on occasion, rises to the level. You’ll push the intro track “Satán” from loud to louder if you play it in the right setting, which is obviously your car on an open freeway.
The bouncy bridge riff in “Marken Brinner” starts promising then gets a little hey now when the double guitar action gets to work. New axe conscript Edward Pancetti classes up the stirring finale to the epic-curious “D.O.D.E.N.” with the kind of accomplished neo-classical noodlery that was definitely not in the mix of Midnatt’s prior outings. I wouldn’t describe Pancetti as a world-class shredder, but he’s got some shit to his game for sure. “Skuggan,” my favorite track of the bunch, sports just a touch of twangy world-weariness below the plucky riff-forward surface. The players move through this one confidently; the main riff is a winner so they let it ride, laying on some pleasant melody but not over-embellishing. Pancetti lays down another sparkling solo here; there’s no shred to speak of but every dive bomb and bend goes exactly where it needs to and nowhere it doesn’t
That Skräckfylld Förtjusning falls ever so short for my particular set of ears is mostly evidence of the privileged state trad lovers find themselves in nowadays. As I hear it, Midnatt knows the style they play cold, but are still sussing out the particular shining idiosyncrasies of their own voices that are needed to pop in a genre where the artists’ creative flame, as opposed to raw aggression or technical brilliance, are asked to do most of the heavy lifting. But I will say this; Midnatt could very well be on their way to finding that thing. In 2046, future crate diggers may not deem Skräckfylld Förtjusning a lost classic. But right here and now? I’m excited to hear where Midnatt goes in 2028.
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