NIGHTMARE - review added 22nd February 2011

Live Album Review: One Night Of Insurrection (Live) (2011)

For fans of: Heavy Metal... and loudness

Nightmare - One Night Of Insurrection (Live) This release from French heavy metal legends Nightmare is a combination CD/DVD recorded as part of the band's 30th anniversary celebrations in October 2009 in their home town of Grenoble. We'll be focusing on the CD here, but as you'll notice from the track list lower down the page, the DVD has even more tracks to make your ears bleed.

We last visited this band in summer 2009 for their latest album "Insurrection". We came away impressed with the musicianship, but disappointed with the lack of memorable tracks. The "One Night Of Insurrection" live album has chance to make up for that; the live stage is all about the performance, so Nightmare should do well.

The band's normal recorded sound wanders between heavy and power metal. If anything their live sound is another step up on the gnarliness scale. The guitar tones here are astonishing. In fact the performances and sounds throughout are great. If anything singer Jo Amore is so much better than the backing vocalists that the harmonies sound unbalanced...but that's the only real complaint.

Production wise,there is a definite air of mugginess going on. The album sounds live, which is obviously a good thing, but a tad more work cleaning things up wouldn't have gone amiss.

There are five songs from the latest album, plus a mixture of older numbers on the LP. My favourite track from "Insurrection", 'Cosa Nostra (Part I - The Light)' sadly doesn't feature here, but the selection of songs seems decent enough in the general scheme of things. As someone listening to this album without intimate knowledge of the band's back catalogue, I have to say nothing stands out as amazing, but the overall standard is still high enough to make it an enjoyable experience.

In Summation:

This is a perfectly good live album. It isn't going to set the world on fire, but fans of the band or anyone who wants a live metal CD/DVD with plenty of bite should enjoy it.

Entertainment/Enjoyment:

Musicianship:

Vocals:

Song Writing:

Production:

Overall (Not An Average Of The Above):

Check out... The sound these guys pump out.

Track List:

CD:
01. Intro
02. Eternal Winter
03. Wicked White Demon
04. Heretic
05. Legions Of The Rising Sun
06. Secret Rules
07. Queen Of Love & Pain
08. Three Miles Island
09. Cosmovision
10. The Winds Of Sin
11. Target For Revenge
12. The Gospel Of Judas
13. The Watchtower

DVD:
01. Intro
02. Eternal Winter
03. Wicked White Demon
04. Heretic
05. Legions Of The Rising Sun
06. Secret Rules
07. Queen Of Love & Pain
08. Three Miles Island
09. Hallucinations
10. The Winds Of Sin
11. Target For Revenge
12. The Gospel Of Judas
13. Mind Matrix Schizophrenia
14. The Watchtower
15. Power Of The Universe
16. Lord Of The Sky
17. Trust A Crowd
+ Bonus “Summer Blast In Isreal” Documentary