Another musical outlet put together due to prolonged pandemic downtime, Nighthawk contains seasoned musicians with ties to Thundermother, 220 Volt, Treat, Houston, and the Hellacopters – started by Metalite bassist Robert Majd. Choosing to express himself on guitar, the style also explores action-filled bluesy hard rock on this third album Vampire Blues. The record contains a mix of originals plus a couple of special cover choices that showcase a fun-fueled thrill ride, speaking to the purity of old school energetic hard rock ‘n’ roll.
When the Hammond organ work of Richard Hamilton sits in tandem to Robert’s main guitar chord choices, there’s this mind-meld aural ecstasy that produces catchy hooks for days. Check into the infectious boogie angles throughout “Burning Ground” where they set each other up to provide vocalist Linnea Vikström ample sky-high register melodies to cherish. Occasional injection of narrative elements provides dynamic reprieve before the next up-tempo number falls into your lap – this scribe especially enjoying the playful syncopated accents done in a Uriah Heep/ Rainbow fashion for “Come and Get It”. Most of these numbers waste no time – a bevy of under three-minute efforts that keep excess to a minimum, with the tones and production values also very minimalistic as if you were experiencing this group in primal live off the floor activities. Feel the feedback pulsate during the intro of “Generation Now” as the lead break evolves into its own emotional journey of satisfaction – or enjoy the four on the floor back beat to “Turn to the Night”, a spirited effort that has a lot of cultural/Thin Lizzy-esque musical underpinnings. The two covers of “S.O.S. (Too Bad)” and “Hold It Baby” from Aerosmith and Sam and Dave illustrate how to ignite older songs to make them new again to another generation of music mavens – the former especially bristling with more vitality because of the organ accents plus Linnea’s playful delivery.
Already recording album number four during late 2023 for future release, Nighthawk swoop in to kick out blues-based hard rock with plenty of 70s influences in their back pocket for Vampire Blues. A labor of love that’s hard to resist, another gem of European descent well worth the investment.