Nachtschatten
Prolog

German quartet Nachtschatten is releasing their debut album that the call Prolog, which translated to English means Prologue which is actually a quite clever name for a debut album. Especially if they are to follow it up with Chapter 1 and so on, which would actually be a rather cool thing to do for a band. A bit of a unique thought making the band an interesting prospect to take on, in theory at least. They do offer up an interesting cover as well with a nightly looking cover with only the name on the front and a city in the fog on the back – it sure looks exciting but looks are one thing and actually making something worthwhile is another thing.

We are dealing with melodic death metal that seems to be very influenced by the Gothenburg School of death metal thinking. Built around the genre’s typical elements and you can hardly describe their music as forward thinking or unique. They play on what other bands have established as a good way to work the trade. The production is alright, pretty standard for the genre. The vocalist is also typical of the genre and I have a hard time finding any thing that feels like a novelty within this new album, when that happens I always tend to wonder why a new album doesn’t feel new or fresh. I think In Flames or At the Gates did something like this back in the nineties and many bands has copied them since and here comes a quartet of Germans and does that exact thing.

It is a decent album, the songs have good energy and the lyrics in German are a fun thing that almost sets them apart from the mainstream. The problem is not that the album is poor because it isn’t; the problem is the lack of novelty and lack unique ideas. I find it quite difficult to make out that this is something these guys have written quite recently and not just rewritten the lyrics to some other band’s songs. I also think that the album is too long and lacks variation, the dozen tracks seems to go on for quite some time. It is okay to listen to and fans of the genre will probably find it entertaining enough to lend an ear. Although I think that most people who listen to this album will tire of it quite quickly due to the lack of identity.

I think that Prolog is a fairly good album it sure works alright to listen to. It may be a bit lacking in novelty and in variation but fans of the genre will be entertained for a while before realising that the album also has a limited life and then you will just put it away never to really bother with it again. It is one of those albums that come and go in a reviewer’s life, one of those that fails to make an impression and just gets thrown in the box with the others and then forgotten as the work with the next album commences. Lets hope that Nachtchatten’s first chapter is better than the Prolog.

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