Kingdom Immortal

Midnite Hellion draw on the revival heavy style of Night Demon and Cobra Spell, stripping down classic metal and rock to its most essential elements and then amplifying the results with little doses of speed and bare-knuckle grit. Judge from the cover art whether you’ll enjoy their mildly untamed form of speed and strut, since the trio let it all hang out in terms of unrefined grooves and sneering vocals, rushing 3 songs to their conclusion before 3 minutes. You wouldn't guess from 'Speed Demon' opening with a Soundgarden riff that it was going to dash down a (midnight) alley, but that's roughly how these Americans roll, fitting any hook to another hook as long it stays swinging with rock 'n' roll attitude. Kingdom Immortal balances out, however, with ‘Army of the Dead’ hitting 8 minutes to moderate the pace of those faster numbers.

That's not to say that the longer cuts swell the album with intelligence and progressive touches: it still barely scratches 35 minutes in total and should largely be fit to hum along to on the first listen. However, with material this immediate and galvanizing even some squeamish perfectionists may feel inclined to drop their protractors and just have fun in the manner intended. Plenty of bands performing in this niche couldn't say the same. Midnite Hellion give you something brilliant to drink cheap beers and run red lights to, yet a song like ‘Phantomland’ really stands out with superior construction as well.


Originally written in edited form for Metalegion #11 - www.metalegion.com