A friend of mine turned me on to this band recently, after describing them as a mixture of Venom and Motorhead...with proper production quality and well-tuned instruments....Not that that's a stab at the primitive vibe of earlier Venom records, "Black Metal" and "Welcome to Hell" are some of my favorite metal records, period, but, it's refreshing to hear a new band with such a respectively honed sound, with such a wonderfully recorded album.
Not only does this band pay audial respects to Venom and Motorhead, but Midnight have a very raw, 70s punk rock feel as well. I'd even say they remind me of The Stooges and The Exploited a bit. The stereotypical, but always fun, Satanic imagery and thematic elements most likely also play a decent sized part of the band's fast rise to popularity, as it is always a hot-button subject, an attention grabber and means of scrutinization, still, in 2014.
Besides the fact that the band's conceal their faces, there doesn't seem to be much of a gimmick in their live presentation, or any added nonsensical visual aids. Not that I don't enjoy the occasional pyrotechnic and/or ritualistic sacrifice, but a direct approach towards a genre that's been saturated with the same corpse-paint ridden, gauntlet and sword-weilding Lord of the Rings worshippers for the 25 some odd years, is a breath of fresh (winter) air.
So, if you are a fan of early Motorhead and punk influenced black metal of yester-year, with Kronos-esque vocals, you might want to jump off your hell-stallion and give Midnight's raw energy a once-over.
