Nightbearer - Defiance [LP]

NIGHTBEARER return with their crushing third full-length "Defiance". The German death dealers from the City of Paderborn in Eastern Westphalia have hammered out an album that retains their signature HM-2 chainsaw guitar sound and also maintains their unapologetic love for melodic death metal of the Swedish kind. "Defiance" also marks another step in the careful but steady evolution of their sound by adding a black passage here and a doom-spiced moment there to their old school sound. The result is an overall much more atmospheric album, which perfectly suits it's lyrical concept. The album is directly inspired by the renowned "His Dark Materials" trilogy of books by English author Sir Philip Pullman. The lyrics revolve on a deeper level of meaning around humanity's emancipation from oppression by religion. When NIGHTBEARER were formed by vocalist Michael Torka and guitarist Dominik Hellmuth in 2017, they were driven by a fervent love for old school death metal and it's golden age in the glorious 1990s. Following the 5-track EP "Stories from Beyond" (2018), their debut full-length album "Tales of Sorcery and Death" (2019) immediately scored a top ten position (#8) in the soundcheck of Germany Rock Hard magazine amid general critical acclaim. With their sophomore studio album "Ghosts of a Darkness to Come" (2022), NIGHTBEARER expanded their lyrical themes to conceptual size by taking their listeners on a journey into the dark events of Robert Jordan's epic saga 'The Wheel of Time'. With their third and most complete full-length to date, NIGHTBEARER display a perfect sense of timing by offering the world a death metal act of "Defiance" based on the "His Dark Materials" trilogy!