Nomad Son - The Darkening

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\r\nAfter two years of absence from the metal brigade of metalzone, I\r\nconsider myself a fortunate man due to the fact that my first review is about a\r\nband that I have been following since their first release and I have enjoyed\r\nall of their albums \r\n

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\r\nSo this is about Nomad Son, an outfit hailing from Malta and “The\r\nDarkening” is their third album. Like all of their releases also this one is on\r\nthe Italian Label Metal On Metal Records.  For all of you that you are not familiar with\r\nNomad Son, the band is the brainchild of Albert Bell (Bass player of Forsaken,\r\nalso from Malta) and their music can be described as Doom metal with heavily\r\ninspired keyboard sound from the 70’s \r\n

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\r\nWell, I Consider “The Darkening” as their heaviest album up till now, an\r\nalbum that maintains the Nomad Son identity but also has some up tempo heavy\r\nmetal passages and a great amount of lyricism and epic feeling. Once again the\r\ninspiration of Epic doom metal and bands like Candlemass is all over the album,\r\nbut also the exceptional work on keyboards (mainly Organ) is present also, for\r\ninstance on tracks like “Age Of Contempt” , “Descent To Hell” , “The\r\nDarkening”  the keyboards could have been\r\ncomposed and played by Jon Lord (RIP) himself. \r\nI would love some more organ passages but Nomad Son on this record\r\nmanaged to maintain the balance between 70’s inspired Organ fills and heavy\r\nmetal and I assure you that this is the most difficult part. Maybe that’s why\r\n“The Darkening” is a unique album\r\n

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\r\nThe presence of the abysmal Heavy Doom riffing is everywhere on the\r\nalbum, slow paced , heavy  from times to\r\ntimes, or galloping and up tempo on others parts , I guess this is one more\r\nreason that makes the album so interesting and easy to listen to. From such an\r\nexceptional album I ll pick as the best track, the track “Caligula”. “Caligula”\r\nlyrics are taken from the book “De Vita Caesarum written by Gaius Suetonius\r\nTranquillus and those lyrics combined with Nomad Son’s music took me back to\r\nEmperor Galigula Era and ancient Rome. Especially these pompous Keyboards and\r\npercussion arrangements got me the feeling that this is a soundtrack to some\r\nCinecitta Roman epic production!! ( Cinecitta Studios in Rome is responsible\r\nfor some of the most epic historic productions in cinema, many of them had\r\nreferences to Ancient Rome)\r\n

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\r\nIn conclusion, I dare to admit that I am fully satisfied with the “The\r\nDarkening”. I also dare to admit that I feel really proud of the band that\r\nkeeps on getting better and better, more inspired and their quality standards\r\nare always on top and on every single release sounds better than the previous\r\none. I consider “The Darkening” as a must listen album, and for your audio –\r\nvisual pleasure I suggest to check the new rerelease of their first album\r\n“First Light” that comes with a bonus DVD and features live tracks from various\r\nfestivals as well as TV appearances\r\n

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\r\nLampros “Alkahest” Tennes \r\n

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