{"id":102610,"date":"2024-03-08T00:00:50","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T00:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=102610"},"modified":"2024-03-14T14:34:56","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T14:34:56","slug":"album-review-midnight-hellish-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-midnight-hellish-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"MIDNIGHT – Hellish Expectations (2024) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIDNIGHT
Hellish Expectations<\/strong><\/span>
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\nMetal Blade (2024)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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With their sixth full-length studio album, Cleveland, Ohio\u2019s Midnight (aka one-man satanic chief Athenar) brings us more of the same hellish, frothing aggression that drips rawness from every orifice.<\/p>\n

The cracks leak with an old school speed as Midnight embraces the usual influences like Mot\u00f6rhead and Venom, but with more tightness to violate the ears. Hellhammer springs to mind on \u2018Mercyless Slaughtor\u2019, and \u2018Dungeon Lust\u2019 is what one would come to expect from Midnight; vicious and lethal while billowing black smoke. \u2018Nuclear Savior\u2019 is a personal highlight, particularly the axe work, but you know with Midnight that no track will let you down as the masked marauder conjures the spirits of Celtic Frost, Sodom and Darkthrone<\/a> throughout these eye-popping explosion of unholy tumult.<\/p>\n

Expect lashings of spiky punk, buckets full of black n\u2019 roll and massive, destructive dollops of speed metal spiced with rust and leather. Midnight has churned out this filth for two decades but I prefer to tuck in sporadically to keep the assaults on the senses fresh. Midnight offers everything you need for those midnight rendezvous; spit, raw meat and leather, particularly with the smoking rasps on opener \u2018Expect Total Hell\u2019 and the more straightforward \u2018Doom Death Desire\u2019.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s strange that the album borders on EP status due to a length of 25 minutes, but there\u2019s still enough heated metal to contend with, especially the seething but hilariously titled \u2018Gash Scrape\u2019 and even shorter blast \u2018Slave To The Blade\u2019 in which Athenar barks: \u201cBroke down tramp menstrual cramp… Tarpit not so well hung, bathe in trash no cure rash\u201d<\/em>, but surely with a smirk under that mask?<\/p>\n

A solid and often blistering opus, Hellish Expectations<\/em> hits all the right spots. But I leave you in the immortal words of Athenar once again, and I quote: \u201cFuck off and live!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIDNIGHTHellish Expectations Metal Blade (2024)Rating: 7\/10 With their sixth full-length studio album, Cleveland, Ohio\u2019s Midnight (aka one-man satanic chief Athenar) brings us more of the same hellish, frothing aggression that drips rawness from every orifice. The cracks leak with an old school speed as Midnight embraces the usual influences like Mot\u00f6rhead and Venom, but with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5607],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-midnight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102610"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102612,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102610\/revisions\/102612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}