Review NIGHTBEARER ‘Ghosts of a Darkness to Come’

Nightbearer has been around since 2017 and the guys are very dedicated to death metal. The band from North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany has been quite productive over the past few years, even with the pandemic. ‘Stories from Beyond’ was a first sign of life, an EP that hit record stores in 2018.

Testimony Records quickly spotted the band’s potential and signed Nightbearer. Thus, the debut album ‘Tales of Sorcery and Death’ was released on the label and now the sophomore album is in the pipeline.

‘Ghosts of a Darkness to Come’, the title of the album, contains ten thundering death metal songs. Nightbearer, like on the previous releases, focus on old-school death metal with smashing guitars, filigree solo parts and bloodcurdling growls.

If you listen to songs like ‘The Dragon Reborn’, you will notice that the quintet always has a good sense for melodic leads despite the brutality of the songs. The title track shows that Nightbearer can also cope well with longer tracks. At the end of the album the guys show with ‘Ghosts of a Darkness to Come’ that they are also able to create longer songs in an exciting and varied format. A hard working rhythm section and hellish riffs, together with tempo changes, make the title track a perfect album finale.

Nightbearer show on their new record that they have the potential to establish themselves in a genre that spawns new bands and albums on a weekly basis. And neck muscle training is certainly called for before you put on ‘Ghosts of a Darkness to Come’.