The Night Eternal – Cold Velvet

The Night Eternal – Cold Velvet
Metal Blade
Release date: 21/08/26
Review by: Jon Deaux
7.5/10

Four Germans and a producer who is normally occupied making black metal music sound like a hate crime against your eardrums have created a vampire record without once mentioning vampires. Thank you, gentlemen. Saying “vampire” out loud in 2026 means that you are advertising a CW Network TV show that was cancelled three years ago.

Third album time. Choose your specialty or spend another decade answering pub trivia questions. The Night Eternal made a choice, and they took their time to make it. Cold Velvet took seven months of studio sessions with proper breaks in between. Very German.

Six different amplifiers are being used on the album, switching according to what each riff requires. It’s not one of those reviews where I start talking about guitar tone because the songs leave me with nothing else to say. The sound is different.

‘Where This World Ends’ features a dry, sharp crunch that gives the rhythm guitars some unpleasant weight without making them a fuzzy wall of sound. You can tell there’s space around the notes. You can hear pick attack. The sound is physical and software modeling still struggles to recreate it.

Richter and Käseberg split the guitar work without making every gap an opportunity for somebody to demonstrate that they own a guitar. This is good. There are no eight-bar virtuoso solos suddenly appearing in a song because somebody remembers that they went to music school. These leads fit into the arrangements. Michael Zech’s involvement becomes clear once you listen to the album. The man is known for working with Sulphur Aeon and The Ruins Of Beverast, where misery is a mandatory feature of production, and the cold touch has found its way to paper. The idea of a black metal musician creating an ’80s-influenced heavy metal album seems quite mad. But on tape, Zech understands when it’s appropriate to show off the machinery. The album has everything characteristic of those records of the past – but there’s also some kind of chilliness there. Someone has opened a window somewhere.

One of the reasons for this is Ricardo Baum. He delivers his vocals with that weary authority which the songs require, and there’s nothing desperate in the way he does it. This singer seems quite tired of whatever supernatural issue has been bothering him. By now, that ghost must have its own chair.

It’s always better than an attempt to turn every verse of every song into a deathbed confession of a Victorian lady. In this case, Baum doesn’t try to overdo it even when it’s possible to do so. ‘When the Last Candle Dies’ profits greatly from this. The chorus is straightforward, melodic, and appropriately melancholic. You could sing it at a funeral, if you wished to. On the other hand, you could also sing it by accident while purchasing some toothpaste three days later, which means that the chorus has accomplished its mission. The reverb in “The Watcher of the Burning Veil” is hanging around in some weird places.

‘Eurydice (Don’t Look Back)’ is possibly the best track on the album. The band didn’t overcomplicate the plot of this song; Eurydice, Orpheus, the underworld, the complete failure to obey one instruction – everyone knows exactly what’s going to happen. She dies, he dies, all the characters of Greek mythology eventually die – this is the first ever slasher movie franchise, and the Ancient Greeks had managed to create something useful out of it.

However, the song remains committed to the dramatic plot but doesn’t take itself too seriously. The guitars handle the burden, the vocals remain restrained, and the chorus provides the necessary lift. There’s no need to whisper an ancient prophecy over a synthesizer for four minutes before the drums begin their work.

This temptation is avoided through the majority of the album.

There is a version of the Cold Velvet that lasts fifty-five minutes and contains a spoken-word interlude devoted to candlelight. Somewhere in a parallel universe, this record does exist. Fortunately, this isn’t it. Eight tracks. No filler. No unnecessary material after the idea has already been conveyed.

The interesting fact is that this album’s greatest virtue will probably turn into its greatest weakness soon. The Night Eternal have developed quite a clear artistic vision: melancholic, retro, catchy, mostly moderate-paced, inspired by classic heavy metal without any delusions about the last forty years having taken place somewhere else. They know how to make the guitars sound. They know where to put the choruses. They know how much atmosphere they can create.

Sometimes you can notice this confidence.

There are places where Cold Velvet seems a bit too comfortable in its skin. Everything has found its place: the guitars are in their right places, the vocals come in exactly when they should come in, the melodies work properly. Nothing has been ruined, very little of it has been allowed to turn ugly. You enjoy yourself, and then realize that the record has just finished – you’ve spent forty minutes in the same room.

Fortunately, it’s a minor flaw, as there are things that are far worse than a band being very good at what it does.

The Night Eternal haven’t tried to reinvent heavy metal on this album. They’ve stopped doing it. Six amplifiers, seven months of recording, and one producer with an established relationship with misery have created an album that understands the rules and knows which of them are worth keeping.

Cold Velvet is an album about grieving that doesn’t spend much time on it. It would prefer to turn the speakers up and headbang at the wake.

Maybe it’s the right decision.

Track list:
1. Where This World Ends
2. Eurydice (Don’t Look Back)
3. Caught in a Spell
4. When the Last Candle Dies
5. The Veins of Time
6. The Watcher of the Burning Veil
7. Shape of Sorrow
8. Dance on Crimson Ground

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/thenighteternal/
https://www.instagram.com/thenighteternal_official/
https://thenighteternal.bandcamp.com

Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Jon Deaux 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.