NightWraith – Divergence
NightWraith – Divergence
What’s Left Records
Release Date: 13/09/2024
Running Time: 42:08
Review by Beth Morait
7/10
NightWraith, hailing from Denver Colorado, are a Melodic Death Metal band… with more than a bit of a twist. It’s also really decent Prog Rock! Now, admittedly, these two genres couldn’t be further apart if they tried, in my humble opinion. The thundering carnage of Death Metal, juxtaposed with the relaxed, quirkiness of Prog Rock. But weirdly this actually works pretty well. The music exists as one entity, and the vocals and percussion live over the top of it as another, in some kind of “Beelzebub does a spot at Jazz Club” oddness.
“Divergence” displays everything you’d want from a really pleasurable easy listening, Proggy rock album. Lovely rhythms, guitars that tell a story, harmonies, easy does it on the overdrive, and just generally satisfying music, in The Allman Brothers Band style… but with thundering drums, and Death Metal growls straight out of the “How To Sing Like David Vincent” handbook!
Musically everything here is really tight, but the heaviest it gets is Judas Priest-esque Heavy Metal, like on track 3, ‘One Flower,’ amongst others. They chuck synth too (so much of my soul really hopes it’s actually a Keytar, because I think I might cry with insane joy if it is), just because why not!
I’m actually stumped. I’m really not sure what I think of this album. Part of me thinks it’s just too many styles being shoehorned in, and it just doesn’t work. But the other part of me thinks it’s actually genius. How the bloody hell did they think this up?!
Basically, this is an album to help neurodivergent people who can’t decide what genre of music they want to listen to. It solves that problem by letting you listen to all of them at the same time!
‘Invocation’ is my favourite track on the album. It’s an instrumental, with a Classic Heavy Metal opening, that moves into prog cross rhythms (with Synthy loveliness, that’s literally just fallen out of the 70s scene), then into a bit of 80s Euro Rock, but with an imposing and dramatic feel… and then it just stops!
They even chuck in a Death Metal reimagining of Pink Floyd’s ‘Us and Them’ for shits n giggles, seemingly. This is pure insanity. You definitely need to listen to this record, even if it’s just to confirm that this is an actual album, and I haven’t just completely lost the plot and am hearing things that aren’t real.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Fruitless
02. Perpetual Night ft. guest Cole Rudy – Pedal Steel Guitar
03. One Flower ft. guest Andreas Wild – Baritone Saxophone
04. Whispers of Dragonflies ft. guest Kelly Schilling – Concert Flute
05. Invocation ft. guest Joey Truscelli – Guitar Solo
06. Fallen Kings and Queens ft. guests Dan Phelps & Chuck French – Backup Vocals
07. Nothing Left to Lose
08. Divergence ft. guests Jeremy Portz & Xander Galvin-Soto – Auxiliary Percussion
09. Us and Them (bonus Pink Floyd cover)
LINE-UP:
Caleb Jose Tardio – Keyboards/ Synthesizer
Igor Panesewicz – Guitar
Isidro “Spy” Soto – Drums
Jacob St. Amand – Bass
Benjamin Pitts – Vocals/ Guitar
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Beth Morait and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
