Artist: Nightmare
Release Title: Waiting For The Twilight
Release Type: Full Length
Release Year: 1984
Artist Genre: Heavy/Power Metal
Artist Origin: France
Track Listing:
1. Trust A Crowd 2. Waiting For The Twilight 3. Too Late 4. Royal Death 5. Drive Down To Hell 6. Lord Of The Sky 7. The Legend 8. Fool On The Scene
Total playing time 32:46
1. Trust A Crowd 2. Waiting For The Twilight 3. Too Late 4. Royal Death 5. Drive Down To Hell 6. Lord Of The Sky 7. The Legend 8. Fool On The Scene
Total playing time 32:46
France is never a country that tends to spring to people's minds today when you say great heavy metal but there was a time in the mid 80's where it was trying to elbow Germany out the way as the 3rd best country for traditional metal acts after the UK and America. There was stellar releases coming out at that time from there with bands latching onto the popularity of the raw NWOBHM sound but putting a different spin on it with their own gallic charm. Problem was the quality that was coming out was very underground compared to the bigger success of German acts at the time like Accept, Running Wild and of course, Scorpions. Part of that was probably due to Germans loving metal more than the French but also because the real giants of the French Scene like Sortilege and ADX preferred to deliver their material singing in French which made their appeal more limited. A band that did sing in English from the French scene was Nightmare and their debut is certainly a bloody classic which took leaves out of the Diamond Head book with a more power metal slant of the NWOBHM sound.
The production is a little more distorted than any of Diamond Head's work tho and the vocals more of a moody croon which sounds like a more sedate, laid back version of Steve Grimmett's of Grim Reaper. Really enchanting stuff as it goes and he really shines through on songs like "Lord Of The Sky" and "Fool On The Scene". Other highlights include the title track and the anthemic opener "Trust A Crowd". All of the songs flow really well tho with solid songwriting. Definitely one of the must have records from 1984. After this record frontman Christophe Houpert was given the boot for a more conventional high register singer in Jean-Marie Boix who wasn't quite as interesting as his predecessor. The material was a lot more average with him as well and the band faded away into obscurity until their reformation in the late 90's.
Definitely check this debut out if you like NWOBHM and american power metal. Easily one of the top 3 French metal albums.
