Night Fever – Dead End (Svart Records)
Wednesday, 31st January 2024
Danish act Night Fever brandish themselves in the old school hardcore/metal crossover platform – unleashing quick hitting songs sure to stir the pot, excite the youngsters, and get your aggression out in a healthy manner. Originally arriving on the scene in 2007, they took a ten-year hiatus before this third album Dead End hit the streets. The time off has not been squandered – the twelve-track platter assaulting all senses in this steamroller sense where high energy riffs, quick hitting shifts, and a bevy of melodic roars to savage screams employ influences all across the heavy music movement from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
Salomon as a vocalist channels a multitude of intense, distinct voices all dependent on the atmosphere or emotions needed to convey for the track placed before him. When it’s razor-sharp intensity, the savage brutal hardcore forcefulness comes out in his lacerated, Sam Kinison-esque roar for “Lone Wolf”, while the previous effort “Numb the Pain” channels his insane melodic shiver-oriented side, as the tempo/guitar runs reach peak punk/metal velocity as if you are hearing the best of Glenn Danzig next to Rival Sons. The galloping d-beat foundation often collides headfirst into guitar/bass interplay that fuses the spirit of classic Motörhead, early Poison Idea, and the brilliance of Suicidal Tendencies – the extra adrenaline high string bends or furious fill work added nuances to an already adrenaline-fueled sound that can not be stopped. Many will love the stop/start vocal to musical shifts with “Up the Wall” where Salomon’s ‘look out’ barrage could save souls from leaping off the edge of buildings, while “By the Throat” is a more mid-tempo offering that showcases a bit more of the crossover, gang-like mentality that can elevate the mood when frustration settles into your average day.
Thirty-two minutes of metallic hardcore, Night Fever with Dead End prove that they’ve lost no intensity, scrappiness, or sheer determination to shove their songwriting into tight windows of explosive madness. In the end, it’s a wonderful sound that hopefully means the next effort will be a couple of years down the road instead of making us wait ten.
