Nocturnal Winds - Demo I 1997

Nocturnal Winds - Demo I 1997
1) Frost Divine
2) Infinity Prevails
3) A Path to Forest Unknown
4) Ride with the Winterwinds

Yandex / Depositfiles

Melodic death metal is something that ends up used as a curse word rather than a description quite often in certain circles, perhaps unfairly, sometimes deservedly. But the Coven is fair, just and above prejudice so let's give another representative of the countless horde of later 90's melodeath bands a chance today. This is Nocturnal Winds from Finland and their first demo, ripped by me from a tape dubbed by brother Grev whom we also have to thank for the cover scans.

Looking at the band name and song titles one might expect black metal, perhaps in the weather report genre and maybe even with thick layers of delicious, cheap synth dressing on top. Nope, we get three long and one shorter songs of slightly rough sounding melodic death metal in the time-honoured 90's Finnish vein. You know what I'm talking about, don't pretend not to. If you actually don't, think '94/'95 Amorphis, same period Sentenced and, ugh, I can't think of anything reasonable and well-enough known right now, but anyways with slightly cruder performance, rougher sound and less frills all around. I'm kind of reminded of the Frozen Tear demo by the sound and performance, and congrats if that says anything to you. Funny enough, this also sounds pretty enjoyable, mostly due the things mentioned which probably will be a negative point to seasoned, jaded meloheads. Despite what I said earlier there are some wee little touches of black metal here and there and I think I heard Satan mentioned too in the third track. Yay! Sometimes this kind of stuff is fine too and it works here well enough, except for the cover picture that really does not lead one to think "frost", "winterwinds" or "nocturnal winds" either, more like Midsummer and booze at a lakeside cabin. The last track is pretty awful with the c'mon! c'mon! - shouts and they were doing so well in the third song too! Still, it's good enough with three pretty good tracks out of four, slightly recommended.