Review MIDNIGHT “Steel, Rust and Disgust”

Onslaught is looking back at the bands that influenced their music and paying homage to them with the second part of the “Origins of Aggression” release. A guy from Cleveland, Ohio, had a similar idea. Athenar, the driving force behind Midnight, recorded an album with two of his own songs and cover versions of the rest.

The album is called “Steel, Rust, and Disgust”, and it starts with a song called “Cleveland Metal” which is a typical Midnight headbanger. At a moderate pace, the song slowly crawls into your subconscious, and you’ll want to restart it the first time you hear it. The song is a tribute to Clevelands’s metal scene, and the title refers to a 1983 compilation release that included music from bands like Black Death and Shok Paris. The other new song is the title track. It’s a stomping metal track with an evil grin that, with its repetitions, has a hypnotic quality.

The other ten tracks are cover versions of songs by Cleveland-based bands, and they are all real underground punk/metal smashers. I must admit that I hadn’t heard of these bands before, but each of these songs is a delight for headbangers. Tracks like the heavy, throbbing “Final Solution” from Rocket From The Tombs and the blasting “3rd Generation Nation” are great songs — raw gems that reflect the spirit of the metal underground. Combined with an anarchic mindset, these Midnight-ized cover versions reflect the sheer energy of metal, beyond any commercial ambitions. They embody the pure essence of denim-and-leather metal, and one might be infected by the “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fever.”

Midnight release an album called “Steel, Rust and Disgust”, which is an ode to the Cleveland punk and metal scene that started in the ’70s. This album is more than just a collection of cover songs. The rebellious spirit of Midnight and Athenar echoes in each tone. “Steel, Rust and Disgust” is an ode to metal and punk, driven by passion and authenticity.