It’s been a busy past few years for blackened traditional metallists Nite, both together and apart. Together, they’ve been playing their fair share of high profile gigs, both in their native San Francisco and at festivals like Hell’s Heroes. Apart, they’ve been equally as tireless. Guitarist Scott Hoffman played a series of triumphant Dawnbringer reunion gigs last year, which Chris Black absolutely swears will not result in any new music. Meanwhile, bassist Avinash Mittur has been keeping active with supergroup power trio Hands of Goro, as well as any other Bay Area band in need of a multi-instrumentalist (We’re only half joking). As for singer/guitarist Van Labrakis and drummer Patrick Crawford, shame on me for not knowing what they’ve been up to off the top of my head, but I’m sure its been anything but slouching around for three years.
The point I’m getting at is these dudes are active, and it’s impressive they found the time to write and record their third full length album, Cult of the Serpent Sun. Following 2022’s otherworldly Voices of the Kronian Moon, Cult expands upon Nite’s “anything goes” approach to metal, with any one given song fluctuating between various styles and sounds associated with *insert classic metal subgenre here*. What’s perhaps most noteworthy about this latest effort is the increased gothic atmosphere, which was previously explored on the band’s last two releases. And yet I still wouldn’t go so far as to brand Nite as a “gothic metal” band. Why? Because just like Voices before it, while the aura might be gothic, there’s too much going on musically for this to be a gothic metal release through and through.
Cult opens with its hard-grooving title track, which feels like a ’90s metal throwback with just a hint of Celtic Frost-ness to boot. Even the most kvlt of metallists will find themselves bobbing their head to that earworm of a lead riff. This is followed by my personal favorite cut, “Skull”. A rampaging blackened thrasher that’s delivered sophistication, class, and a gothic bleakness, “Skull” is a punisher and a half, drawing from the well of first wave black metal worship, yet without sounding like a blatant lift of Venom, Hellhammer, or whoever may have you. It’s also the outing’s most headbanging-ist moment, which alone captures the heart of this lifelong thrasher.
As for the rest of Cult, there’s no shortage of classic ’80s metal riffs and hooks reinvented through Nite’s obsidian lens. “Crow (Fear the Night)” is a meticulous fusion of icy goth and retro arena metal, not far removed from what Unto Others are doing today, but with a fiercer delivery. “Carry On” utilizes the riff-driven attack that made the NWOBHM the force it was circa ’80, while “The Last Blade” channels the adventurism of Maiden and guitar melodies of Thin Lizzy with a blackened prog twist. I get that at times these adjectives and descriptors seem to contradict each other, in which case I advise you to explore Cult for yourself and tell me if I’m wrong.
Save for a couple ritualistic goth-doom forays that strike me as a tad too repetitive (i.e. “Crow (Fear the Night), “Tarmut”), Cult of the Serpent Sun is a consummate display of metallic exploration through the abyss. Just like I said of its predecessor, it is Into the Pandemonium-core if there ever was such a thing, and guaranteed to please those who like their metal on the unpredictably avant-garde side of things. Considering an upcoming jaunt with Savage Master lurks right around the corner, no doubt these Bay Area bizarros will set a tone of unease before Stacey and the gang devil rock us through the night!
7 out of 10
Label: Season of Mist
Genre: Black/Heavy Metal
For fans of: Tribulation, In Solitude, Unto Others
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