It’s no secret how close to my heart The Night Flight Orchestra lies. They are, without question, one of the all time great side projects in metal history, and I’ll die on that hill. Now what happens when said side project embarks upon their own side project? Would that be a side quest within a side quest? Whatever you call it, we find ourselves face to face with an album that fits this bill in Nighthawk’s Six Three O. In all fairness, Nighthawk isn’t an offshoot of NFO per se, but rather the brainchild of Captain Black Beard guitarist, Robert Majd, which just so happens to feature three NFO members: Singer Björn Strid, keyboardist John Lönnmyr, and bassist Rasmus Ehrnborn.
Whereas NFO and Captain Black Beard are full fledged ’80s AOR throwback outfits, Nighthawk blurs the line between the ’70s and early ’80s with a much more straightforward heavy rock attack. With an emphasis on virtuosic shredding and forceful Hammond organs, the most obvious comparison to draw is to Deep Purple, even if Strid’s vocals never reach those stratospheric heights of Ian Gillan (and who could?). However, for the way Nighthawk balances this approach with AOR hooks and slickness, I can’t help but also hear shades of late ’70s/early ’80s Uriah Heep, Lucifer’s Friend, and Rainbow, when these ’70s metal acts suddenly caught the Foreigner bug.
Whether they’re going for Purple tinted metal or punchy AOR that would’ve found its way on a Tommy Vance radio program circa ’81, one thing that threads all the songs on Six Three O together is their brief time. Over the course of 32 minutes, Nighthawk sandwiches 10 original songs and a cover (a turbo-charged rendition of Rainbow’s “Man on the Silver Mountain”, appropriately) which gives many of the songs the feeling that they ended before they started. Maybe it’s because I’m used to these types of songs being 3 to 5 minutes long, but the prospect of most of these cuts barely passing the 3 minute mark took me for a surprise. Consequently, one thing that can’t be said is that this album boasts any fat.
Being the denim n’ leather-clad headbanger that I am, the heaviest cuts are the ones I gravitate towards the most. Barn burners like “Hard Rock Warrior”, “Wrong Side of Desire”, “I Am the Night”, and “Too Good to You” are bound to find their way on my ever-growing Purple Metal playlist, a term I coined to characterize metal acts with distinct semblance to those Highway Stars (i.e. White Spirit, Vanadium, Murasaki, etc.) They’re fast and furious, as one would suspect, cutting straight to the chase. On the flip side, more accessible cuts like “Home Tonight” and “Can’t Say Goodbye” will take old timers back to the pages of the earliest issues of Kerrang!, when AOR kingpins like Foreigner and Journey coexisted with the rising NWOBHM crop.
For what it is, Six Three O is a pleasurable collection of high voltage riff rockers, chock with old school finesse, guaranteed to satisfy the oldest of old school metal maniacs. Fans of the members’ respective projects will also be pleased, especially the NFO crowd who longed to hear more of the band’s harder rocking style, something they always tease with a few songs on every release. Long no more! Nighthawk has flown in and they’re ready to rock.
7 out of 10
Label: Mighty Music
Genre: Hard Rock
For fans of: Deep Purple, Rainbow, The Night Flight Orchestra