Blackend Mystery

The dawn of a new millennium; dark misanthropic prophecies about the end of the world, fear and panic instilled in the hearts of men… Horrible, truly horrible times to reside in, a vast amount of food for nightmares of all more or less unimaginable kinds. The more artistic folks vented them in dark, “black” creations of theirs including our friends here who paved the way for the album reviewed with a 4-track demo in 1996. This was the time when American power metal started showing signs of waking up not without the help of the tireless Iced Earth who “sacrificed” their potent retro speed/thrashing antics on “The Dark Saga” for the sake of this revival campaign. The latter was quickly enlarged with newcomers like New Eden, Steel Prophet, Cauldron Born, Destiny’s End (founded by Helstar’s James Rivera), Spirit Web, etc.

So the new millennium looked like a prospective ground for the US power metal field to rise again and bathe in glory like in the good old days. Nightmares End were by all means up to the challenge only that their approach differed from the one of the other heroes as it relied on very heavy volcanic riffs with a hefty doom potential like “Prophets of Mortalization” displays so well, a great brooding masterpiece with excellent soaring clean vocals; a composition that would have been a highlight even on Candlemass’ “Ancient Dreams” or Solitude Aeturnus’ “Through the Darkest Hour”; a faster-paced passage served later certifies the album’s entry into the power metal fodder although the following “Nightmares” sinks deeper into doom, a sprawling 10-min epic which deviates from the slow norm with a striking speedy section and a portion of brilliant melodic leads.

“Memories of the Unseen” crosses power and doom metal on a dramatic pounding base with more epic arrangements which get translated on “Gardens of Stone” in a more laid-back, semi-balladic manner, a standout elegiac griever worthy of My Dying Bride. The title-track nearly reaches the 9-min mark, but no complaints whatsoever as the guys do an admirable job once again covering a wide ground of moods including several intense galloping passages which create a compelling symbiosis with the more officiant doomy dashes; outstanding emotional vocal performance on this one, too. “Hired Assassin” doesn’t miss out on an imposing doomy introduction, and later on things only become marginally more energetic as the guys prefer the more ponderous ways of expression. “Eye-for-an-Eye, Tooth-for-a-Tooth” doesn’t shift from the chosen formula at first, but its initial serene balladisms are cancelled by more intense rhythms although the latter can’t possibly make a very big impact on this gigantic nearly 10-min saga. The real behemoth, however, is “Inhumanity Faced”, 12-min of exemplary epic doom with several surprises along the way like the very fast thrashy breaks and the superb melodic lead strokes, not to mention the amazing operatic vocal exploits at the end.

In the long run this album is much closer to doom than to progressive power metal, but the band have concocted a marvellous tribute to the slower section of our favourite music, and should be proud of it. Alas, unlike the other mentioned practitioners who were raising the flag of American metal at the same time and survived for at least the proverbial sophomore showing, this act disappeared after this opus never to be recovered again; now if this isn’t a mystery for the whole pleiad of renowned detectives out there…