Greek legends Nightfall have provided a staple and reliable output for the past three decades and a new arrival from them is always something to celebrate. Go back to 1992’s Parade into Centuries, and you will see an album steeped in the early Hellenic extreme metal scene – and a full-length release that predates those of countrymen Rotting Christ, Varathron, Necromantia and Septicflesh while bearing all the hallmarks firmly stamped upon the releases that would follow throughout the decade. I’m not saying Nightfall was more seminal as any of those bands, but that release provides a clarity of purpose that is as sobering as any of the others – and some pretty heavy duty extreme metal in those first three albums worth checking out.

Nightfall has always had a more obviously gothic side to its image and music than some of those bands – putting it firmly in the same camp as Moonspell at various stages of their career, and particular the triumvirate from Lesbian Show (yes you read that right) onwards. Perhaps almost to distraction at times as the band’s sexually charged gothic side took over and 1999’s Diva Furtura which almost felt nu-metal influenced. But it’s interesting looking back to see that the band has warped and changed through the years into various interesting and unpredictable forms and, to be honest, the albums from Lyssa – Rural Gods and all that followed have all be as solid metal album run as any in the Greek scene, or anywhere else for that matter, as the band settled into a full-on blackened death-goth-doom metal style with some classic atmospherics, rousing symphonics and the occasional uplifting pentatonic salute.

I guess what I’m driving towards is the old trope that Nightfall must rank highly on a list of criminally overlooked metal bands. It has probably not been helped by the uneven pacing of albums over the last couple of decades – eight years since the last album – and the studio-only shift in the latter part of the band’s career, itself born from the ups and downs of the personal life of frontman Efthimis Karadimas’ who has suffered from bouts of depression. Looking back, I was stunned to discover that Lyssa, for example, enjoyed only one official release – on CD back in 2004.

But, with Season of Mist clearly getting firmly behind the band, I hope their legacy gets a much-needed lift alongside some other outfits that are getting more of the attention they deserve recently. Nightfall’s ingredients are many – I always think that Karadimas’ thrash roots have informed Nightfall in some of those early releases but in more recent albums too. But there have been some really nice Therion moments and even, on this most recent release, some heads down melodic death metal that would even give Amon Amarth a run for their money – albeit with a dark, claret edge.

At Night We Prey puts us firmly on familiar Nightfall territory – sweeping atmospherics (I was surprised to learn they’ve scooped up former Septicflesh drummer Fotis Benardo), grand riffs and sky’s-the-limit ambition when it comes to song-writing. But is this the album to propel the band into the same Olympic realms as Rotting Christ and Septicflesh? The first few minutes pulls out all the stops: dreamy gothic intro followed by torrential blackened death metal and crushingly emotional leads that even the masters Rotting Christ would be proud. Second track Darkness Forever takes the gnashing, vampiric flight the band has thrown itself into soaring even higher while the heart wrenching Giants of Anger, the third track released by the band before the album proper, is a gothic stomper that has a little bit of down tempo Cradle of Filth about it and is, even on the first spin, a standout track and perhaps more reflective of the overall tone of the album than the full-on high octane Killing Moon that came before it (although the rapid fire-then-release of Darkness Forever probably straddles both).

But with mournful tremolo moments, fist pumping chants, gothic moans and a super catchy title track all still to come it’s difficult to imagine what more Nightfall has to do to reclaim its rightful place in its mother country’s extreme metal pantheon. There’s also an even spread of oddly indulgent, esoteric moments that I suggest could easily have been ladled on more heavily and not done the album any harm – those lo-fi spoken word or ‘Bontempi’ black metal moments I like to think of them as – that are always gratefully received. The influences here are many – with the irony that Nightfall have probably been as much an acknowledged or unacknowledged influence on many of the above bands and more, as anyone. The cover will go down as one of my least favourite of the year for albums I will no doubt return to repeatedly over the next eight months. But I challenge any serious metal head with a healthy respect for the Hellenic scene to resist the allure of At Night We Prey.

(8.5/10 Reverend Darkstanley)

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