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NITE
Cult Of The Serpent Sun

Season Of Mist (2025)
Rating: 7/10

Nite’s sophomore album Voices Of The Kronian Moon was, in my opinion, one of the best releases of 2022 so I’m glad to see that the Californian cult has re-emerged from their basement.

Cult Of The Serpent Sun once again fuses, and successfully too, a blackened aggression with dark heavy metal. As soon as the title track erupts you’ll find yourself bangin’ along to the hook before guitarist Van Labrakis (Satan’s Wrath) chimes in with those fiery, satanic gasps.

Nite maintains its mystical edge with occult-driven lyrics and traditional metal crackles, such as on the doomy ‘The Mystic’ and the snarling ‘Crow (Fear The Night)’. But much of this is classic heavy metal led by crisp leads, percussive strikes and solid bass lines.

Nite rarely goes beyond the shadows which suggest a band not quite living up to its potential, or maybe comfortable in its twilight zone. Even so, Cult Of The Serpent Sun boasts a decent amount of strong tracks, particularly ‘The Last Blade’ which actually reminds me of Keel rather than anything remotely sinister, although there are streaks of Mercyful Fate through several cuts, such as ‘Carry On’, while Bathory in Viking mode appear as an influence on ‘Winds Of Sokar’. The consistent magic on this album though is the axework of Van Labrakis and Scott Hoffman (Dawnbringer); they are the perfect tag team who bring an excitable slickness to the record, as evidenced on ‘Skull’.

Nite remains a compelling act that refuses to change its sound, my only worry however is that they may just run out of gas over the next few albums. But as it stands, Cult Of The Serpent Sun, although not as good as Voices Of The Kronian Moon, is a solid return made all the more appealing by the fret action.

Neil Arnold

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