BRAINSTORM
Following up the average ‘Scary Creatures’ from early 2016, Torsten Ihlenfeld and co. come back at us with ‘Midnight Ghost’, which promises to be a more technical and polished escape for your metal craving ears to intake and enjoy! Well, that’s not a promise the band made, that’s an opinion of my own as I can say right off the bat that everything available on this 2018 release is a big jump, in all ways, from their last outing. Which is a damn good thing! Let us do a deeper dive into this release, shall we?
‘Devil’s Eye’ starts us off with a fury of excellent pacing and strong technical riffs that quickly shifts into ‘Revealing the Darkness’, that clearly presents terrific build from onset to an impressively chantable chorus. The lyrics are well presented, if even a bit corny, but have that epic sound that had been missing in Brainstorm’s earlier work. Pleasantly impressed by this return to form for these metallers!
‘Ravenous Minds’ kicks off with the chorus of a well done track that continues the overall momentum of this album, working the path to ‘The Pyre’, which also has crisp and clear guitar riffs and an excellent chorus. It does a great job leading into the middle of the pack with a continuous showing of strong power metal anthems, massive choruses, as well as perfectly executed (albeit short) guitar solos! ‘Jeanne Boulet 1764’ and its constant screams of “Sacrificer” will remain in your head for ages, ‘Divine Inner Ghost’ and ‘When Pain Becomes Real’ are both excellent tracks that get your blood pumping!
The final few tracks, while very well produced, continuing onward with great intensity, seem a little flat to me. Not anything overly bad about them, they just come across as bonus tracks with little new to offer over what we’ve experienced throughout our ‘Midnight Ghost’ journey. ‘Devil’s Eye’ and ‘Haunting Voices’ have good punchy riffs and nice choruses, for sure, but if I had to point out one weak point of this album, it would likely be these two tracks being back to back towards the end of the album.
Then we have our ballady closure track…. ‘The Path’…..‘The Path’ is a serious change of pace from what we have had thus far. In an odd way, it’s actually one of my favorite tracks on this album. I feel the acoustic build is really well done and continues into the chorus that I really feels could connect with a great number of listeners out there. While the near twangy dips in the vocals may throw some off, the overall presentation really kicks everything into gear and sends you home happy! What a cool tune!
The concept art on the front cover is also eerily well done by artist Gyula Havancsak, and if that name is familiar, it should be as many iconic albums by such acts like Stratovarious have used some of his best work. The overall presentation of ‘Midnight Ghost’ is a massive jump forward for these veterans of metal!
Everything you find within ‘Midnight Ghost’ is crisp and well produced, written with elegance, and full of metal polish. The only drawback is it STILL feels quite unoriginal. Each song has that, “Oh, this sounds a lot like [ ]” feeling that I’ve blamm’d them for in the past. While that is not really a HUGE knock against the music as a whole, it is still something to note. Everything Brainstorm offers with this 2018 release is well done with great care and should make any fan of theirs, as well as any power metal listener, extremely happy with this entry into an impressive discography.
‘Devil’s Eye’ starts us off with a fury of excellent pacing and strong technical riffs that quickly shifts into ‘Revealing the Darkness’, that clearly presents terrific build from onset to an impressively chantable chorus. The lyrics are well presented, if even a bit corny, but have that epic sound that had been missing in Brainstorm’s earlier work. Pleasantly impressed by this return to form for these metallers!
‘Ravenous Minds’ kicks off with the chorus of a well done track that continues the overall momentum of this album, working the path to ‘The Pyre’, which also has crisp and clear guitar riffs and an excellent chorus. It does a great job leading into the middle of the pack with a continuous showing of strong power metal anthems, massive choruses, as well as perfectly executed (albeit short) guitar solos! ‘Jeanne Boulet 1764’ and its constant screams of “Sacrificer” will remain in your head for ages, ‘Divine Inner Ghost’ and ‘When Pain Becomes Real’ are both excellent tracks that get your blood pumping!
The final few tracks, while very well produced, continuing onward with great intensity, seem a little flat to me. Not anything overly bad about them, they just come across as bonus tracks with little new to offer over what we’ve experienced throughout our ‘Midnight Ghost’ journey. ‘Devil’s Eye’ and ‘Haunting Voices’ have good punchy riffs and nice choruses, for sure, but if I had to point out one weak point of this album, it would likely be these two tracks being back to back towards the end of the album.
Then we have our ballady closure track…. ‘The Path’…..‘The Path’ is a serious change of pace from what we have had thus far. In an odd way, it’s actually one of my favorite tracks on this album. I feel the acoustic build is really well done and continues into the chorus that I really feels could connect with a great number of listeners out there. While the near twangy dips in the vocals may throw some off, the overall presentation really kicks everything into gear and sends you home happy! What a cool tune!
The concept art on the front cover is also eerily well done by artist Gyula Havancsak, and if that name is familiar, it should be as many iconic albums by such acts like Stratovarious have used some of his best work. The overall presentation of ‘Midnight Ghost’ is a massive jump forward for these veterans of metal!
Everything you find within ‘Midnight Ghost’ is crisp and well produced, written with elegance, and full of metal polish. The only drawback is it STILL feels quite unoriginal. Each song has that, “Oh, this sounds a lot like [ ]” feeling that I’ve blamm’d them for in the past. While that is not really a HUGE knock against the music as a whole, it is still something to note. Everything Brainstorm offers with this 2018 release is well done with great care and should make any fan of theirs, as well as any power metal listener, extremely happy with this entry into an impressive discography.
LABEL:
FORMAT:
AFM Records
Album
MIDNIGHT GHOST
Review by Joshua Jaeger
RUNNING TIME:
51:38
RELEASE DATE:
28th Sept 2018
TRACK LISTING
1) Devil's Eye
2) Revealing the Darkness
3) Ravenous Minds
4) The Pyre
5) Jeanne Boulet (1764)
6) Divine Inner Ghost
7) When Pain Becomes Real
8) Four Blessings
9) Haunting Voices
10) The Path
2) Revealing the Darkness
3) Ravenous Minds
4) The Pyre
5) Jeanne Boulet (1764)
6) Divine Inner Ghost
7) When Pain Becomes Real
8) Four Blessings
9) Haunting Voices
10) The Path
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
Germany
"Everything you find within ‘Midnight Ghost’ is crisp and well produced, written with elegance, and full of metal polish."
