"All Evil Crying" [MCD'99]
01. Childhood Memories
02. A Piece of Soul
03. The Storm is Coming
“At Fireland Depths” [Demo'97]
04. Deeply Asleep
05. Autumn
06. Lust
07. Allegorical Immolations
08. Fly Yourself Without me
”Who I'll Never Know” [Demo'95]
09. We'll All Be Burnt Alive
10. Into the Eye
11. The Scythe
12. Who I'll Never Know
Comment:
Re-issue of all the stuff recorded by this genius band that plays a technical and melodic Death Metal even with Doom hints that blended in an unique and masterly way, flamenco elements creating something genuine. Imagine an hybrid between DEATH & ORPHANED LAND, but with flamenco feeling. Includes their mini CD from '99 and the two demos from '95 & '97. A total of 12 songs in 65 min. of pure genius!!
When I first heard of NIGHT TO DIE in 1999 I read something about a combination of technical Death Metal and Spanish folk music. So I was quite curious to listen to their "All Evil Crying" MCD (Repulse Records) because I thought flamenco guitars would suit well to a Death Metal band. So I had to buy that MCD but unfortunately there weren’t that much flamenco guitars and it was mostly just complex Death Metal with a few “exotic” ingredients. Nonetheless "All Evil Crying" was a damned fine piece of sophisticated melodic, technical Death Metal. Somehow, and I really don’t know why, I did not listen to that MCD very often and totally forgot the band. They also didn’t release anything else until Xtreem Records put the band's entire work on this compilation CD including the "Who I'll Never Know" demo from 1995, the "At Fireland Depths" demo from 1997 and the aforementioned MCD from 1999. On all three releases NIGHT TO DIE presented some very well executed and complex arranged Death Metal which reminds me now and then of mighty DEATH without being a copycat. I think it’s rather astonishing that both demo releases are on that same high level like the MCD, already on their debut demo from 1995 the band really kicks ass. I’m usually not into Death Metal bands which add pianos or clean vocals to their sound but here it really works for me. There are also some oriental sounding vocals which I did not expect from a Spanish band but I guess these influences are remains of the time when the Moors ruled the Iberian peninsula. However, the oriental vocals fit perfectly to the music on the contrast to the clean vocals which are very lame in my humble opinion. Anyway, the main vocalist has a standard deep and powerful Death Metal voice which is not too spectacular but good enough. I wouldn’t say that “Non Omnis Moriar” is a must have but it’s a more than solid release. So check it out if you are interested in technical Death Metal with some exotic ingredients.
There are many Metal bands that have not had the opportunity to show their talents and creativity to the world. This is the case of "Night To Die", which unfortunately plunged into an icy air for years. And guess what? This Spanish band of Folk / Death Metal could be one of the major global metal scenes. And the good news these days is that the group found its activity with the rerelease of their old material to open a new stage of creation, and you'll see in the rest of the review that this is not a simple Death Metal band…
The new opus, comes in a package that includes a reissue of two demos "Who I'll Never Know" in 1995, "At Fireland depths" in 1997, and an EP in 1999, "All Evil Crying", the CD's' entitled "Non Omnis Moriar" and released under the label "Xtreem Music". "Night to Die" plays a 90s old school Death Metal in the manner of the Giant "Death" or also "Atheist", but with a melodic touch extracted directly from Andalusian culture, comes to add personality to all the pieces, listen for example to, "The Storm Is Coming" or "Deeply Asleep". So the geographical context was a reason to merge the Flamenco with Metal. The attitude of the compositions was richly spiced with unexpected arrangements that coming out of the rule of verse-chorus.
The musical maturity and the technical determination of the members of this group, is something remarkable from the first minute you listen to them. In fact, riffs on the guitars are very technical and refined, without forgetting the Flamenco passages. Bass guitar for me is the most worked instrument in terms of technicality and perfection, because it can be easily distinguished. And in the majority of the tracks the Bass don’t obey to the guitars and follows its own path. The playing on the drums does not go very far from the progressive tendencies adopted by the quartet, it's really complex parts, but very perfectly mastered to preserve the charm of the songs. The vocals are very variable, mostly growling in the way of Chuck Schuldiner (R.I.P), but you can also find clear voices in the manner of flamenco singers, and it was something that impressed me a lot.
The production is of course dated, since 1995 for the first demo for example. But that did not prevented from having a very good sound, just perfect for the context of style. It must go through all the pieces to notice that the recording quality was very homogeneous for all.
I spent a very good time listening to the integrality of "No Omnis Moria" From beginning to end; I was really a guest of honor at a wedding among Flamenco and Death Metal.
NIGHT TO DIE acaban de sacar un recopilatorio de lo que supuso su corta pero intensa trayectoria musical. Tanto la primera demo “Wo I’ll Never Know” del año 1995 como su segunda “At Fireland Depths” del año 1997 fueron editadas únicamente en formato cassette. No fue hasta la salida de su primer EP titulado “All Evil Crying” dónde por fin Repulse se fijaron en ellos y sacaron ese trabajo en un formato más perdurable en el tiempo.
Hemos tenido que esperar más de trece años para poder tener toda su carrera recopilada en un único CD, el cual lleva por título “Non Omnis Moriar”, pero por fin los que nos quedamos con las ganas de tener sus dos primeras demos podremos disfrutar de ese magnífico material, también en formato digital.
NIGHT TO DIE no eran una banda convencional en ningún sentido, para empezar decidieron realizar un mezcla de Death Metal Técnico con elementos del Flamenco y de la música étnica en general que muy pocas bandas podían y se atrevían a combinar; imaginaos una mezcla entre los israelitas ORPHANED LAND con pinceladas técnicas y de extrañas estructuras cómo los Death-Thrashers Técnicos SADUS o pasajes brutales, a la vez que melódicos, tipo OBLIVION o los mismísimos DEATH. La mezcla parece extraña, lo sé, pero el resultado es magnífico, y eso es lo que hacían estos cuatro jóvenes venidos de las calurosas tierras del sur en Cádiz. Una verdadera lástima que una banda con una potencial tan grande no llegaran a sacar, al menos, un disco completo. Muchos creen que la banda precursora en fusionar Metal extremo con Flamenco fue la banda francesa IMPUREZA, nada más lejos de la realidad, si hubo una banda a la cual le podamos colocar dicho título, esa sería NIGHT TO DIE.
Sin lugar a dudas NIGHT TO DIE fueron una banda llena de ideas y con unos recursos instrumentales fuera de lo común. Si tuviera que resaltar algo en especial, sin duda sería los pasajes que realiza constantemente el bajista, demostrando un potencial enorme a cada nota. Otra cosa fuera de lo común para la época era usar voces limpias y pasajes con guitarras acústicas (muy al estilo AMORPHIS) pero con un toque claramente flamenco que hacía que se diferenciaran de otras bandas de estilo similar al suyo. Seguramente muchos dirán que lo que encontraremos en este CD no es nada novedoso. No les quito razón, el hecho es que para valorar correctamente estos puntos deberíamos viajar con la máquina del tiempo e ir al año 1995 para hacernos una idea aproximada e intentar entender que pocas bandas en el mundo hacían lo que ellos en ese preciso momento, y eso dice mucho de una banda salida de España en los años noventa.
Los tres trabajos aquí reunidos son tres piezas clave imprescindibles para entender a la banda, pero si me tuviera que quedar con uno de ellos mi elección sería su segunda maqueta “A Fireland Depths”, ya que creo que la combinación entre técnica y agresividad es perfecta (aunque por suerte, quién decida hacerse con este álbum tendrá las tres piezas en un único disco). Una demostración singular de potencia y de buen hacer instrumental que a día de hoy, en el año 2013, sigue sonando igual de fresco que cuando salió.
Me gustaría pensar que el hecho de que hayan decidido sacar esta recopilación puede dejar alguna puerta o ventana abierta a la posibilidad de que la banda se reforme y que decidan sacar más material en un futuro no muy lejano. Quizás eso sea mucho pedir, de momento me voy a conformar escuchando esta colección de canciones en formato recopilatorio.
El sello Xtreem Music ha conseguido juntar en un solo CD todo el material de esta gran banda española (”Who I’ll Never Know” (demo 1995), “At Fireland Depths” (demo 1997) y “All Evil Crying” (MCD 1999)) que muchos seguramente conocéis y que se llaman NIGHT TO DIE, formados en el año 1994 y que desde entonces editaron 2 Demos y un MCD a través de Repulse Records para luego entrar en un gran período de letargo… ahora han “despertado” con nuevas ideas y proyectos y mientras trabajan duro en material nuevo , en Xtreem han tenido la buena idea de sacar este material para ir abriendo el apetito y que la gente los vaya recordando de nuevo. Un CD en el que encontrarem0s un total de 12 temas, editados entre los años 1995 y 1999, y donde se refleja la clara evolución que experimentó esta banda edición tras edición. A lo largo de todos los temas se aprecia que la base del sonido de NIGHT TO DIE es la misma, un death metal de corte técnico con bastante melodía y con especial atención al aspecto técnico; musicalmente a lo largo de todos los temas y, sean del año que sean, nos viene a la mente los Death del “symbolic”, con esas estructuras muy trabajadas y ritmos pegadizos, a la vez que los registros vocales tienen bastante simulitud con los del recordado Chuck Schuldiner. La combinación de ritmos pesados con fases más tranquilas, rozando el Doom en algunos momentos, es la nota predominante a lo largo de todas sus composiciones que se ven apoyadas, en diferentes fases, por un regustillo flamenco en algunas melodías que vienen a recordarnos algo así como lo que hicieron Orphaned Land con sus raíces orientales. Una mezcla explosiva, que quizás tiene su punto más álgido en los temas del MCD “All Evil crying” (1999). Un trabajo que viene de perlas si no conoces a la banda (sobre todo la gente más nueva en la escena) y si ya los conoces, es la mejor manera de tener su material bien agrupado a la espera de una edición nueva.
Wow what a gem this album is, it took me completely by surprise, this is some of the coolest and weirdest stuff I have heard, ever, period! Reading the info sheet that came with this, the reissue of Night to Die's Ep and demos got me very interested, since it states and I quote "Imagine an hybrid between DEATH & ORPHANED LAND, but with flamenco feeling". And yes folks, this is exactly what we get, and boy is it cool, it' is like I am on a rollercoaster and I have gotten my drink spiked. You never know where these fine fellows are going with their songs and what they have waiting around the bend.
So what I'm talking about is a reissue by Xtreem music of Night To Die's demos from 95 and 97 and their All Evil Crying Ep from 99. Night To Die plays death metal in the vein of the two bands I mentioned in the quote, so what we get is technical/progressive death metal the way it sounded in the mid 90s, but if you think that these guys sound like the many Death clones that spawned in the mid to late 90s, oh no, sure there is a very strong resemblance in the riffing, drumming, bass playing and vocals, ok so basically everything, but there are so many twists and turns in the songs that it is mind bending. I don't know if I ever have been so entertained by an album, I got totally lost in it. It is like you are banging along to a sweet riff and then all of a sudden some middle eastern chanting comes in, some awesome flamenco parts, piano, choir part or weird vocal parts. In some songs there are also a sort of a Iron Maiden vibe going on, and that just adds to the feeling of "what the fuck", check out the song Lust for some Maiden epicness. It feels like these guys really had fun while they were creating their music, because it really put a smile on my face.
Sound wise the recordings sound similar, I did not even notice when the Ep songs ended and the demo songs started. The sound might not be top notch by today's standards, but it is pretty damn good. Especially if you consider that some of this stuff was demos done in the mid 90s. I like this kind of sound very much, it is in no way raw, it is just not over produced. You can hear that this has a few years on its neck, but that just adds to the charm. What I think sounds best on this album is the drums sound and the Spanish guitar (just listen to the little interlude Into the Eye, wow) because both instruments sounds gorgeous, and the playing, well, read the next paragraph.
The playing on this album is hands down breath taking, everyone is a master of their respective craft. And of course if you are playing Death inspired stuff you sort of have to be. The drumming is technical with a lot of cool stops, small breaks, tempo changes and general groove. The beat is generally mid paced to slow, there are some faster parts, but not that many. The bass playing is tight and I have to say fun, since this is the way bass playing is supposed to be if you ask me, the bass is often going out on its own and doing its own thing, and there are bass breaks and solos scattered all over this album. And what is great is that the bass is high in the mix, so you don't have to take residence in your speaker to hear it, since that would be both kind of a pain in the ass and also a bit sad since there are so many cool bass parts on these recordings. For example the bass solo track Autumn, which to my ears sounds like the rest of the guys told the bass player just to go nuts. The main growling vocals are similar to Chuck from Death, but maybe a tad lower. But there are many voices on this album, clean chants and just plain weird stuff. I guess I have to point out that some of the clean vocals are not that great, they are rather out of key at times ( I do not mean the middle eastern sounding chants thou), just so I don't sound like a total fan boy.
I feel that this kind of record could easily have become tiresome or "too much", like so many albums that have been stuffed with so many elements. But no, not this one, I just want to hear more, and what is especially remarkable is that this is a compilation of three different releases, so it is not like they planned out the weirdness and placed it evenly on the record so the listener would not get totally confused. Nope, this is a three course meal of weird awesomeness, and it all works together, simply stunning. And after finishing the full 66 min of it all, I pressed play, again, because this is just that great and I hope you will check it out, right now, so do it right now, and, have a nice day!
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