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Night Mistress: Into The Madness
Night Mistress Into The Madness CD Album Review

Night Mistress: Into The Madness

Melodic/Heavy/Power Metal
4.0/5.0

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Power Prog Records
Words by Craig Hartranft,  11.06.2014

It doesn't take more than a few songs to discover Night Mistress' influences and so their sound. The Polish metal easily blends European melodic heavy power metal with more than a little vibe from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. While this is hardly uncommon across the UK and European Union, you'll be hard pressed to find a band doing it this well. Into The Madness is the second album, and there are no songs with Polish lyrics.

Night Mistress Into The Madness Band Photo

Night Mistress: she's behind the band.

Night Mistress grabs all the necessary elements for the genre and mixes a strong melodic metal brew: strong emphasis on melody, more than a little rock groove, some speed as necessary from a slick rhythm section, abundant twin lead guitar lines, and strong vocal arrangements. Actually, for some, vocalist Krzysztof Sokolowski, may remind a bit of early Bruce Dickinson. But that could be a stretch. Sokołowski can get a little screamo at times, out of his range, but generally he's steady throughout.

To the songs, as most fans of melodic power metal know, the music can quickly become derivative and redundant if not done correctly. The simple fact that Night Mistress crafts good melodic metal songs and delivers them with skill are their two best strengths. Yes, Night Mistress is hardly reinventing the wheel. Mostly, when it comes to classic metal, we don't want our traditional bands screwing with the tried and keep it true. But that doesn't mean it can't be fresh, made relevant for the modern age. Again, this is another one of their strengths.

The larger part of the album stays the course with Hand of God, Until the Day Will Dawn, the fast Hell Race, a good example of how power metal infuses speed metal, and the very catchy groove monster Walking On Air being some of the best. Some not so much. The metal anthem or ballad, not sure which, Grieving Stars begins with promise in the subtlety of it's opening moments, then gets a tad heavy-handed in the second half. That aforementioned air of power metal redundancy follows with the two closing songs, Sacred Dance and Recurring, where your ears eagerly seek some element that makes either song stand out. Nevertheless, even with slight bumps along the way, Night Mistress delivers an album of solid classic melodic heavy/power metal. Recommended.


Night Mistress - Hand of God





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In Short

Drawing from classic European power metal and NWoBHM metal roots, Night Mistress delivers an album of solid classic melodic heavy/power metal. Recommended.

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