Space Nights

Newsflash! Raleigh's wicked Knightmare has slyly turned around with full-length number four, Space Nights, another seven-tracked (albeit shorter at half an hour), super accessible and silkily smooth installment in the North Carolinians' slowly but surely budding discography.

Tearing up the ether with instrumental opener "The Conqueror" - a mighty, fine thematic/musical preamble to Missy Foreman-Greenwald's "The Vagilantes" rescue-mission for women/planned-parenthood throughout the cosmos (can you blame me for the Big Mouth shoehorn?) - front-bass man Anthony Micale keeps up his indelibly concise, as well as compellingly inflected, vocals amidst ax-blaster cohorts Reid Rogers/Jared Mountz and drum denigrator Chris Hathcock - who replaces Spencer Hughes this time around - on a dyed-in-the-coal top highlight/single "Heart of Stone", before waxing further galactic-ally winded on the speedier n 'meaner "Khazad-Doom" and bubbly, melodic, yowling party shaker, "Flame of the West"...which, dare I say, makes for a juicy accompaniment piece to White Wizzard's sole Flying Tigers winner, "West L.A. Nights", but I digress.

Although Space Nights (I love the 80s styled, graffitied album title à la Ammo or Thunderheart) adheres to a much better defined concept premise than 2018's top-notch, incandescent band propeller Walk Through The Fire - a slightly catchier, not to mention, heartier affair (but not by too much) - still peaceably assuages classic trad metal inclinations relative to audibly plump, caroming bass lines, harmonious-as-Hell fret works and brittle albeit slam-able skins, the lot garnished, dotingly, with Micale's kick-ass, middle-of-the-warpzone mid range, even on the rather relaxing and sprite, cleanly incepted, one minute long intermezzo, "Spellbound"...just in time for a further afterburner in "Witchburn", a full-throttling, gang-yipped humdinger I hold in similar esteem as "Flame Walker"'s "Banshee", "Supermoon" and/or "Lake Of Rage"...For the record, now, I've dug, and will continue to dig, everything and anything Knightmare puts out from this point on!

The killer, wah-drenched soloing twisting up "Witchburn", by galaxies far and wide, makes me want to prance around on my attic stowed wooden horse whilst air-fingering it to no avail - that is, minus the Big Mouth aspersion. Even the closing title track rocks from here to Sirius...go Knightmare!