Midnight is undoubtedly one of the first bands that comes to mind when discussing black/speed metal. Midnight was founded by the band’s mastermind Athenar in 2003 and it gained wider recognition with the release of the band’s debut album Satanic Royalty after releasing several EPs, splits, and demos through the years. Midnight is mostly identified as a breed of Motorhead and Venom in terms of influences and the general sound. Other than that, while knowing Athenar is a big NWOBHM fan, he also takes huge influence from his punk roots. What’s more, it is important to mention that Athenar runs the band in a one-man band format and records all the instruments and vocals. With this feature, alongside his contemporary Toxic Holocaust, Midnight stands as a significant source of inspiration for other one-man projects such as Whipstriker and Hellripper.

Midnight released four albums after the debut album Satanic Royalty, and Let There Be Witchery was the latest album to be released in 2022. After two years, Midnight has shown up with “Hellish Expectations”, which was out on the 8th of March. The album was released with the Metal Blade Records label, which Midnight went under the roof of the company in 2019. The cover art was made by William Lacey who had all the duties on Midnight’s artwork since the beginning of the band’s career. Also, we see that Midnight’s so to speak “signature” bell symbol has made a glorious return to Lacey’s canvas after its absence on the last three Midnight album covers. The cover reflects very much what to expect from the album in a thematic sense.

As its title suggests, the opening track “Expect Total Hell” gives hints immediately to what to expect from the album right from the start. To speak of lyrics, it is no surprise that Athenar wouldn’t give up on using the theme of satan, blasphemy, and evil.

“Guided by hellish glory, follow me through the flame

  Destroying all that is holy, done in satan’s name”

Right after these lines, Athenar comes up screaming with the lines “Expect no quarter, expect total mercy, expect total hell!”, injecting the lyrical manifest to the minds from the first chorus of the album.

The second track, “Gash Scrape”, is a highly aggressive track that combines punky open chords with some serious tempo. Even though Hellish Expectations is an album that gives very little chance to breathe between the tracks, my ears ring every time with Athenar’s “Scrape out the dead” scream at the end.

The third track “Masked and Deadly” is a fast-paced, melodic track that opens up with a cool lead section in the beginning. Using single-note melody sections is not really a habit of Athenar, but when he does so, I always enjoy those melodic sequences. Athenar’s NWOBHM influence makes these melodic sections even more attractive to me. (To give a specific example, the melodic section after the solo in Lust Filth and Sleaze from Satanic Royalty was a climax to illustrate this situation in my opinion). And to talk further about the track, Masked and Deadly is also featured as Athenar’s most intense vocal track in terms of hitting high notes.

The following track “Slave of the Blade” is a solid proof of the Motörhead influence that I mentioned before. Saying this is the best possible way to explain listening to the same riff over and over without being bored for two minutes. I highly recommend listening to this that would make our beloved Lemmy smile from heaven.

After the rock ‘n roll injection we’ve experienced in the previous track, “Dungeon Lust” takes hold of us with its spooky atmosphere and highly catchy chorus. With Athenar’s efficient songwriting that offers fewer riffs and lyrics but more catchiness and memorability, we see that Dungeon Lust is a track that makes you memorize the chorus before the start of the song after listening to it once.

Then comes “Nuclear Savior”, which was released as the second single from the album. I would easily describe the track as “Motörhead on steroids”, and with the additional bits of NWOBHM, the track steps up the album as it pierces through our ears with its high tempo. Following this, “Deliver Us to Evil” reaches its peak in terms of the punk elements in the album with its aggressive guitar parts and ferocious drum attacks that certify the punk influence over the track.

Then it’s time for my favorite track from the album, “Mercyless Slaughtor”. It’s interesting that the track differs from the others in the sense that it’s relatively lower in tempo but it is the most energetic song from the album in my opinion. Listening to the song makes me wanna walk the streets with my hands and arms throwing over the air like one crazy mf. On the other hand, we can tell that the guitar tone is slightly different from the other tracks as Mercyless Slaughtor offers a more fuzzy guitar tone in the song which adds a different flavor all in all. Mercyless Slaughtor remains the strongest track in the album according to my taste.

“Doom Death Desire” comes later as the tightest track speaking of vocals in the album. Usual Midnight listeners are familiar with Athenar’s distorted vocal character over the years, however, we see that Hellish Expectations stands on a higher scale in terms of distorted vocals when compared to previous albums. And we can claim that Doom Death Desire is a distinctive song to feel that. The track leaves a remarkable taste as we come closer to the end of the album.

The closing track “F.O.A.L” was the first single from the album at the same time. Probably giving reference to Darkthrone’s F.O.A.D, F.O.A.L stands for “F*ck off and Live”. The track reflects the album’s thematic character very well while not going down the average tempo in the album, offering high-octane punk and rock n ’roll. Before calling out the title again right before the end, Athenar mirrors his world with an impressive line:

“Don’t waste your time to pray for terminal grief.”

The 25-minute thunder ends with the scream: “F*ck off and live!”

As we look back to the album in the end, it’s hard to not admire the album when you think of the tremendous amount of energy that it packs up within a length of 25 minutes. Athenar was right when he said that Hellish Expectations is the most “to the point” Midnight album interview. I would approve his claim by saying that Hellish Expectations seems to me like a distilled product of the whole Midnight discography. The album contains all the elements of Midnight’s musical journey through the years, making it a good starting point for the ones who want to be introduced to the band and the whole black/speed metal genre in general. To speak of Athenar’s economic songwriting, I can only explain this situation by saying that being unique with fewer riffs and fewer lyrics in such a genre is just Athenar’s magic. Even though I’m talking about a fast and aggressive album, it does not make you feel like your brain is hammered, thanks to relatively a better production. The album flows through your ears with all its general quality and ideal length.

Hellish Expectations is likely to remain my favorite album of the year unless a better one comes out for my taste. This brings another question on the topic of Midnight’s capacity to surpass the standards that Athenar set in this album. Nevertheless, everything is possible, I really enjoy the cycle of Midnight’s coming up with new material once in two years. We will see what the future brings for Midnight as we continue to dig Hellish Expectations.

Doruk Atay