There are few flat-out guarantees in metal these days. But one of them has to be that Nocturnal Rites won't release a dud album. Oh, and said album will go unnoticed by most of the world's heavy-metal fan base.
Granted, The 8th Sin is not as memorable as earlier albums featuring vocalist Jonny Lindqvist, who replaced Anders Zackrisson in 2000 and helped Nocturnal Rites evolve from a corrosive death-metal band to a progressive/power-metal juggernaut. But this band has already released so many high-caliber albums with Lindqvist at the helm – Afterlife, Shadowland, New World Messiah – that more of the same is just fine. In fact, I'm surprised that the band's majestic, melodic and muscular sound (not unlike that of Edguy and Axel Rudi Pell) hasn't been imitated more often by other bands. With an emphasis on song structure over double-bass drums, Nocturnal Rites uses Lindqvist's vocal range to its advantage. Guitarists Nils Norberg and Fredrik Mannberg continue to explore dynamic riffs fused with massive choruses and tight songs. Metal hymns and all-out headbangers rule this record, but it is the piano-only ballad "Me" that reveals the raw depths of Lindqvist's voice and likely will draw comparisons to Edguy's Tobias Sammet.
Now that Nocturnal Rites has damn near perfected the art of Swedish heavy metal, I challenge them to write more songs in the vein of "Me" – performances that maintain the band's distinctive metal sound while pushing it toward new borders.
Track Listing
1) Call Out to the World
2) Never Again
3) Not the Only
4) Tell Me
5) Not Like You
6) Leave Me Alone
7) Till I Come Alive
8) Strong Enough
9) Me
10) Pain & Pleasure
11) Fool's Parade (Outro)
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