Nocturnal Rites - Grand Illusion

Year of Release: 2006
Label: Century Media
Catalog Number: CD 8292-2
Format: CD
Total Time: 46:38:00

As it was with The 8th Sin, which I also have just reviewed, Nocturnal Rites's 2006 release Grand Illusion was pulled from the "archives" and given a spin or two (or more) as they were on the bill for some festival or another back in, ahem, 2010. With a new album on the horizon (as of this writing) and some planned festival dates this spring and summer... I thought it high time I turn my notes into a review.

As I've said before, when I first heard of Nocturnal Rites (but had not yet heard), I expected a much heavier, darker form of metal. And that expectation comes, to some degree, with Grand Illusion. It is grittier than the album that followed (The 8th Sin). Here, the vocals are a bit rough around the edges tonally, which I like. Something I like also about Blind Guardian, Jag Panzer, etc. It's an earthiness ... well, grittiness, that gets lost with totally "clean" vocals and with the all-in "winds-of-hell/cookie monster" style as well. Instrumentally speaking, this is "heroic" metal, expressing everything in epic strokes, especially the choruses.

While it's energetic and powerful in execution -- it chugs, marches, throbs, goes off on some brief pseudo-orchestral interludes -- I really would like to hear more dynamics, more contrast between the bombast and subtlety. That sameness I feel may be because the percussion is often so up-front and follows a general pattern. There are dynamics to the drumming -- it's not 10 tracks of double-bass and nothing but double-bass -- but still I want more. If you put it on random so the tracks are playing in a different order... would you notice? That's what I'm getting at. That something more should distinguish a track from the neighboring tracks than the chorus and a title. After a while, certainly, one comes to know each track, but I think that should come right out of the gate. I realize this is a style that has its own "rules"... it's not intended to be full on progressive metal... or even neo-classical metal (though there are elements of it here and there).

Let's take "Fools Never Die," which opens the album, as an example. We do get a tiny little bit of contrast. It is predominantly crashing percussion in a marching rhythm with guitars in lockstep with the drums. But after the guitar solo (somewhat ho-hum as solos go), there's a brief pause for a twinkling keyboard effect. I think ...well, a song doesn't have to be long to be dynamic, but I think the short songs limit what the band can do. When you try to fit everything into neat little 4-5 minute blocks, and you are trying to do something other than a rock song... well, something gets short changed. No, they don't need to write 20-plus minute epics (though there's not thing wrong with that either), but...

Don't get me wrong, I like this kind of metal. There's no reason not to - it's all appealing and inoffensive. I mean, it doesn't beat you over the head in relentless and pointless pummeling, it doesn't sing about raping babies or dismembering a loved one -- although it does continue, or start, this idea of killing a friend. What's going on in Nocturnal Rites' world that friends are killed?* Compare "Cuts Like A Knife" (no, not a cover of the Bryan Adams tune) with "Never Again" on 8th to see what I mean. And, in a way, it tries to be an introspective, maybe a bit philosophical -- not necessarily successfully, they aren't very deep. It's gloomy and dark lyrically to be sure - all about disappointment, feeling led astray, being somewhat cynical ("Our Wasted Days," for example). On the other hand, there's "Still Alive;" it's is one of those, "yes, I'm bruised and bloody, but I'm going to soldier on..." songs (not the actual lyrics, by the way). It's a message that both fits and runs counter to the overall theme. And one wonders... well, what is that Grand Illusion? Faith, religion? .... (I think their ambitions are greater than their aim will allow...).

So, let's talk about a few tracks that particularly standout for me. There's the grittiest of the album's tracks, the aforementioned "Cuts Like A Knife," which includes a bit of those (also aforementioned) "cookie monster" vocals, here the "voice" of Naglfar -- literally, since it's guest Kristoffer Olivius, vocalist of the band Naglfar*giving voice to the "character" within the story of the song. For me, this is an example of "cookie monster" vocals being used to good effect, especially in contrast to Lindqvist's cleaner main vocals. When it becomes the lead vocal for song after song, it just... it loses something. But here it adds that dynamic that is not as present in the rest of the tracks. This track also features these notable guests: Stratovarius keyboardist Jens Johansson, who provides a solo, and Evergrey's Henrik Danhage, who loosens a guitar solo. Oddly, it's the only that doesn't have a pop-friendly, sing-a-longable chorus.

The band get a bit a thrashy with the opening salvo of "Something Undefined" -- that has to do with the drums. But within short order, things are throttled back. Keyboards are a stronger (not strong, but stronger) presence in the mix. The band seem to be channeling some hybrid of Evergrey and Blind Guardian. And the band get sort of proggy at about the 2:30 mark with a brief bit of keyboard atmosphere (and I do mean brief) before an almost fusiony guitar solo comes in ... it, too, lasts a brief time... in a way, it's something undefined, just sort an amorphous shape before the driving metal returns.

Other observations: "Never Trust" has a different kind of dynamic - I'll say an internal dynamic - and it's in the drums, where Lingvall's pattern is more staccato, stuttering and yet machine-gun rapid. Here we do get a bit more by way of soloing, too, both guitars and keyboards, which makes this track seem longer than its 4-plus minutes. "Still Alive" is full of electric energy ... I can almost imagine sparks flicking out from the percussion. The guitar solo seems muted in comparison, even as Norberg is showing off his deft fret work (though on more reflection, it creates its own sparks). Not all of the energy is coming from the drums, some of it is coming from Lindqvist's exultant vocals... the forcefulness with which delivers the title phrase leaves you with no doubt that he is "still alive."

The rest of the tracks on the album all have notable moments - "Deliverance," which ends the album is good... and perhaps is their most Blind Guardian-like moment. One thing that's true about all the tracks - good to great production. It's funny, but as dark as themes are here, the music gives you a feeling of triumph... Overall, this is a good album. A great deal more progressive/power metal than The 8th Sin and a bit more pleasing for fans of the band. Is it the jewel in their crown... that's not for me to say... I've not decided yet whether this appeals to me more than New World Messiah, but I think that might still have edge. Still, not a bad album at all, and I don't think fans will be (or were, I guess I should say) disappointed, or as disappointed as they were with The 8th Sin.

* Naglfar in Norse mythology is a ship made of ... eew... the fingernails and toenails of the dead.


Tracklisting:
Fools Never Die (3:54) / Never Trust (4:44) / Still Alive (4:02) / Something Undefined (4:09) / Our Wasted Days (5:17) / Cuts Like A Knife (5:11) / End Of Our Rope (5:27) / Never Ending (4:29) / One By One (4:24) / Deliverance (5:01)

Musicians:
Jonny Lindqvist - vocals
Fredrik Mannberg - guitars
Nils Norberg - lead guitars
Nils Eriksson - bass
Owe Lingvall - drums

Guests:

Kristoffer Olivius - additional vocals (6)
Jens Johansson - keyboard solo (6)
Henrik Danhage - 1st guitar solo (6) Stefan Elmgren - 2nd guitar solo (2)
Emil Norberg - additional guitar (5)
Ronny Hemlin - backing vocals
Jens Carlsson - backing vocals
Per Elofsson - additional guitar (2)
Henrik Kjellberg - keyboards, backing vocals
Olec Balta - 1st guitar solo (4), left channel intro (5)
L.G. Persson - backing vocals
Leif Grabbe - backing vocals

Discography:
In A Time Of Blood And Fire (1996)
Tales Of Mystery And Imagination (1997)
The Sacred Talisman (1999)
Afterlife (2000)
Shadowland (2002)
New World Messiah (2004)
Lost In Time (2005)
Grand Illusion (2005)
The 8th Sin (2007)
Phoenix (2017)

Genre: Progressive-Power Metal

Origin SE

Added: February 20th 2012
Reviewer: Stephanie Sollow
Score:
Artist website: www.nocturnalrites.com
Hits: 3476
Language: english