Nightfall – Cassiopeia.

To say that Cassiopeia, the 9th studio album from Greek metallers Nightfall is busy is an understatement as it jumps from symphonic metal to death and thrash in the blink of an eye. Its dominated by the one dimensional but compelling aggressive bark of vocalist  Efthimis Karadimas.

Efthimis formed Nightfall back in 1991 and is now the only member of the original line up. Cassiopeia was released via Metal Blade Records on Jan.22nd 2013 and is also available for digital download from iTunes and Amazon. The diversity of the album is shown early on in the opening track Phaethon. It can mainly be described as Rammstein with a death metal vocal with added haunting keyboards and Iron Maiden style guitar melodies.

Other tracks of note are Oberon And Titania with a monstrous opening riff followed by a speed metal passage as the vocals kick in over juddering guitar riffs! Colonize Cultures is a suffocatingly heavy number with the disturbing  vocal delivery and guitar riffs piling on the gloom. Album highlight for me is 4th track The Nightwatch. Its jarring intro riff is backed by a  faster 2nd guitar as the song switches to a marching tempo with stabs of speed metal all held together by some furious drumming from Jorg Uken.

Hubris rides along on riffs that seem to get more intense as the song progresses with an old school Opeth mid section and once again, another pounding drum workout. The Reptile Gods is all lightning bolt melodic riffs with an almost spoken word vocal for intensity. Hyperion is like a more gnarly Morbid Angel with keyboard flourishes and a raging guitar solo. Closing track Astropolis closes the album in the style it opened with, everything thrown into the melting pot. A fluid speed metal intro grinds to almost a standstill with crushing riffs with a heads down pedal to the metal midsection making way for a bit of doom as the song ends in a frantic guitar workout. A fine way to end a unique metal album.

Nightfall band :-

Efthimis Karadimas – Vocals.

Evan Helmsley – Guitars.

Constantine – Guitars.

Stathis Ridis – Bass.

Jurg Uken – Drums.

Stathis Kassios – Keyboards.

Cassiopeia track listing :-

Phaethon.

Oberon And Titania.

Colonize Cultures.

The Nightwatch.

Stellar Parallax.

Hubris.

The Reptile Gods.

Hyperion.

Akhenaton, The 9th Pharoah Of The 18th Dynasty.

The Sand Reckoner.

Astropolis.

I award Cassiopeia 9/10.