Very interesting debut from these Finns with a bit of bite to it….
Stephen Brophy finds The Nights are drawing in when he sits down to review their self-titled debut album, released on 4 August 2017 by Frontiers Music Srl
There seems to be a lot of interesting Melodic Rock coming out of Finland just now and you can add The Nights to that list. Formed in 2015 the band have released their debut album on Frontiers Records and it is really good stuff. It certainly has that Scandinavian sound to it, and would be along the lines of bands like Work Of Art, or indeed The Magnificent (for whom singer Sami Hyde wrote a couple of tracks on their excellent debut album).
This is a mix of modern AOR with a kind of a biting edge of slightly harder riffs here and there, as melodic as it comes in places but not floaty and the guys have not been afraid to mix stuff up a bit on different tracks.
There are 11 tracks on offer ranging from the more upbeat end of things such as ‘Nothing But Love’, with its crunchy riffs and powerful rhythms, or ‘Hold On’ which is quite anthemic, through to luscious ballads like the closing ‘We Can Rule The World Tonight,’ which is expansive and beautiful at the same time. If anything you are waiting for it to take off to a different level, but it holds fast to itself, a little more poppy than the average ballad, granted, but it just has something about it that digs in.
The standouts for me however are the lead single ‘Juliette’ which is just a powerhouse with a really driving beat surrounded by solid riff and keyboards that envelope and add to how it all comes together. It highlights Sami’s voice which fits like a glove with this style of music. Along with ‘Take Me To Heaven.’ which opens with a touch of almost spoken word and builds rapidly, once again with the keyboard elements being vital to the overall sound, one of these songs you can immediately hear as a crowd-pleaser live.
Really this collection of songs needs to be heard from a stage, the range of the guitar sound can be quite understated in places throughout the album, which is not always a bad thing. There are some beautiful pieces throughout and solos around the segments where they are needed. It adds that bit of subtlety which can often be missing when strong riffs are added to this genre of Rock. Let’s hope there are some touring plans for 2018.
Definitely an interesting debut, well worth checking out, it’s got that feel of Scandinavian AOR/Hard Rock to it but with the addition of crunchier riffs and heavier drumming that would normally be associated with the vocal style/delivery and keyboards. I look forward to their next release with great interest and to see what direction they take.
Track list:
- Welcome To The Show
- Nothing But Love
- Juliette
- I Will Never Stop Loving You
- In The Blink Of An Eye
- Hold On
- Elegy (You Should Be Here)
- Take Me To Heaven
- You Belong To Me Tonight
- I Wanna Be Your Superhero
- We Can Rule The World Tonight
