I should probably thank Hard Disk Drive for making my life really easy writing this review. Honestly, there is not much to say other than go and listen to “Immortal Nightmares”. The whole review of the album can be summed up with the phrase “just go and listen the Hard Disk Drive’s debut”. At this point you have all the information you need about the album. If not, stop reading and play the first song of the album, “Storms of Venus”, and all your questions will be answered. And “Storms of Venus” is instrumental, so please keep your jaws in place, the vocals kick in at the second song.
By now you must have gotten the memo about how good an album we are talking about. The “Immortal Nightmares” is a heavy metal explosion. Hard Disk Drive decided to follow the “less is more” path, which should be honest in music is a risk. They “embedded” their influences, took inspiration and through their own musical perspective unleashed this record. A perfect blend of epic heavy and epic doom, with huge epic riffs “forged in iron, crowned in steel” and deep doom-like vocals that remind of bands like Candlemass and Sorcerer. There is not much more I can say about their sound and their musical direction, since it is pretty straight forward. They are epic, they are heavy and they deliver exactly what they were supposed to deliver.
However, there is a slight detail that waters down the experience a bit, if we consider everything related to the record as a whole. And that is the artwork of the record that to me at least seems a bit off from the context of the album. But that is my own aesthetic and by no means affects the quality of the music and the experience, once the first notes have played.
Concluding, the new (epic) heavy metal scene is vibrant with many great bands like the Visigoth, Eternal Champion and Black Soul Horde, producing great, fresh sounding heavy metal. Now, Hard Disk Drive have joined officially with an amazing debut that will surely make them a favorite in fans’ hearts and a band that we will be looking forward for every upcoming release.
1. Storms of Venus
2. Long March to Freedom
3. Fragile Innocence
4. Babylon Nephilim
5. I Only Say Goodbye
6. Souls of Self-Destruction
7. Ebony Sadness
8. Queen of a Newborn Kingdom
9. Winter Shores
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