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MIDNIGHT
Hellish Expectations

Metal Blade (2024)
Rating: 7/10

With their sixth full-length studio album, Cleveland, Ohio’s Midnight (aka one-man satanic chief Athenar) brings us more of the same hellish, frothing aggression that drips rawness from every orifice.

The cracks leak with an old school speed as Midnight embraces the usual influences like Motörhead and Venom, but with more tightness to violate the ears. Hellhammer springs to mind on ‘Mercyless Slaughtor’, and ‘Dungeon Lust’ is what one would come to expect from Midnight; vicious and lethal while billowing black smoke. ‘Nuclear Savior’ is a personal highlight, particularly the axe work, but you know with Midnight that no track will let you down as the masked marauder conjures the spirits of Celtic Frost, Sodom and Darkthrone throughout these eye-popping explosion of unholy tumult.

Expect lashings of spiky punk, buckets full of black n’ roll and massive, destructive dollops of speed metal spiced with rust and leather. Midnight has churned out this filth for two decades but I prefer to tuck in sporadically to keep the assaults on the senses fresh. Midnight offers everything you need for those midnight rendezvous; spit, raw meat and leather, particularly with the smoking rasps on opener ‘Expect Total Hell’ and the more straightforward ‘Doom Death Desire’.

It’s strange that the album borders on EP status due to a length of 25 minutes, but there’s still enough heated metal to contend with, especially the seething but hilariously titled ‘Gash Scrape’ and even shorter blast ‘Slave To The Blade’ in which Athenar barks: “Broke down tramp menstrual cramp… Tarpit not so well hung, bathe in trash no cure rash”, but surely with a smirk under that mask?

A solid and often blistering opus, Hellish Expectations hits all the right spots. But I leave you in the immortal words of Athenar once again, and I quote: “Fuck off and live!”

Neil Arnold

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