Embedded Files
THE NIGHT ETERNAL “Cold Velvet”
THE NIGHT ETERNAL “Cold Velvet”
By Colonel Angus
I was lucky to catch these guys at Hell’s Heroes VII back in 2025 and I walked away so impressed with their sound and performance, I quickly brought their two albums “Moonlit Cross” and “Fatale” into heavy rotation in the Angus household. I was not familiar with them before that concert but they made such a mark that I couldn’t wait for them to release more. Well, I didn’t have to wait too long as “Cold Velvet” landed on my desktop a couple of weeks ago and I have been spinning it ever since.
The album starts with a great galloping track called “Where This World Ends” and the band squeeze in every element of their sound into this opening tune; powerful, haunting vocals, catchy riffs, and thunderous rhythms. The music doesn’t hit so much as it washes over you creating an auditory blanket of sound that sounds both familiar and new. Wasting little time, the next song “Eurydice (Don't Look Back)” continues the trend with similar material but not copying what came before. All of this brings me to what is probably my favorite track on the record. “Caught in a Spell” has one of the best earworms found ere. The chorus is pure metallic magic with so much melody and vocally Ricardo Baum really shines especially here. Robert Richter and Henry Kaseberg trade chords with an almost conversational ease, shaping deceptively simple harmonies into something far more intricate for the listener. Their interplay gives the music both immediately accessible on the surface, yet increasingly complex the closer you listen.
The galloping element returns for “When the Last Candle Dies’ but they mix in a heavy dose of the accessibility of the previous tune. These last two pieces are standouts on a record that is great start to finish. “The Veins of Time” gets a little heavier and faster while still keeping the melody that is ever present. The guitar solos here are spot on with just the right amount of guitar histrionics without taking things into a shred-fest (which would not have fit their sound at all). Keeping things a bit more fast-paced, “The Watcher of the Burning Veil” delivers a frantic energy that will have you headbanging for days. This tune gives me an IRON MAIDEN vibe especially at the end with the “woah-woah-woah” vocals.
Right before we get to the epic on “Cold Velvet”, we get another energetic banger in “Shapes of Sorrow” which captures all those THE NIGHT ETERNAL elements without really repeating themselves. This one combines the frantic nature of their sound along with the aural blanket that washes over you with each listen. The band still delivers this late in the record and that just shows you the quality of the material. All of this culminates in the epic “Dance on Crimson Ground” which starts off slow but builds into a bit of a cool proggy metal workout. Clocking in at over seven minutes, this is the longest tune in their catalogue but I wouldn’t shave a second off this song or any song on the record.
“Cold Velvet” is one of my favorite releases this year and will definitely make my top ten in 2026. Not only are the songs first rate, the production this time around adds a new brightness to “Cold Velvet”. Each of the members puts in a powerful performance and quite honestly, this one will be a tough one to top. Fans of the band will already love this record but I think “Cold Velvet” will expand their audience and my hope is that they come on tour again.
Report abuse