In a Time of Blood and Fire

Considering how radical it can result, it is uncommon to see transitions from death metal to power metal, as in the case of Nocturnal Rites. The fact that they kept their moniker regardless of this transition makes things more interesting. Nonetheless, for whatever reason, the band bet for satanic and dark lyrics, which is an uncommon orientation for a power metal band. Cases are few. Running Wild's early years are an example, though it is still a particular case given that their sound was a sort of Venom-Accept-Priest-Maiden crossover. Nocturnal Rites, however, took the most melodic side of these bands and created a different concept that was more oriented towards the 90s trends, such as those imposed by Helloween and Gamma Ray.

The album is generally well-done, but it has flaws that were fortunately corrected in the next release. Firstly, the production f**cks off the overall album's sound. As a result, the drums are not shown in their prime, and instead, they sound as if they were taken from a low-definition recording, so the numbers tend to sound too shiny. Further, Zackrisson's vocals are also a victim of this production issue. Although his style as a vocalist is underrated, production, unfortunately, does not help prove this point as they sound too high-pitched. Leaving that aside, guitar playing is great, their songwriting concept is well-developed, and their songs are memorable; however, this album was released when pretty much everything about power metal was written during the last decade by bigger names like Rage, Running Wild, and Helloween. That said, Nocturnal Rites' debut is a significant first step that managed to rescue the last hopes for decent power metal stuff, but there was too much work to be done.

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As many Nocturnal Rites fans would know, they originally started as a death metal band, even going far enough to record a few demos in the style of death metal. But for some reason, before releasing their first album, they decided to change their style to the polar opposite of death metal, power metal. For my album order of Nocturnal Rites, this was the last one, which I heard years before writing this review. After hearing the album right after Tales of Mystery and Imagination, I had no impression of In a Time of Blood and Fire sounding so… strange and yet somewhat unique. Ignoring the name and album cover, I thought it would sound similar to Tales of Mystery and Imagination but slightly rougher due to it being a debut album. Wow was I quite wrong. I guess when writing the songs for this album, some of the death metal influences never went away. Now, I do say death metal influences, but they are very few and far between really only precipitating slightly in the form of production and atmosphere, and keeping some aggression. If I had to qualify this album in simple terms, I would probably do so by saying it’s the product of a dramatic change in style, from death metal to power metal, with some properties kept from the shift that cultivated into quirks that appear on In a Time of Blood and Fire.

The production on this album is heavy. No, not heavy as in polished in a traditional sense of power metal, but everything, from the drums to guitars, sound heavy and quite monstrous. In fact, I would probably say it lacks a significant amount of polish. In Sword of Steel, the guitar work and production surrounding it sounds foreign of power metal, instead sounding more at home on a speed metal song on the heavier end or even thrash metal. After Sword of Steel, the album does become more laid back, but still is certainly not the status quo in terms of heaviness when it comes to power metal. As a whole, this album sounds dreary and depressing, another quirk left over from Nocturnal Rite’s death metal days. As a result though, I think this does bring down the quality of this album somewhat because the depressing atmosphere is used in most of the tracks In a Time of Blood and Fire, making the album sound somewhat formulaic during a passive listen.

The one thing lacking in this album are distinguishable characteristics from track to track. Just passively listening to this album causes a large portion of this album to sound nearly identical and tracks sort of run into each other. Nocturnal Rites on this album are by no means recycling riffs from track to track, but nearly every track has similar structure, tempos, and ranges. I almost want to say that this album sounds somewhat formulaic, but that would be doing it a slight injustice as the issue is somewhat more complex than just throwing an ambiguous and over-used insult. The executed “formula”, in the form of the over-used depressive atmosphere and unchanging song structure on this album makes it sound different from so many other mediocre in power metal, and as a result, the somewhat formulaic nature of In a Time of Blood and Fire does not drag the quality down all that much, despite what I led into earlier.

Yes another aspect foreign to power metal on this album is the lack of a single ballad. Some may call Dragonisle a ballad, but I would personally disagree. In my subjective definition of a ballad, Dragonisle only marks off one check: it is slow. Dragonisle is WAY too doomy, gloomy, and powerful sounding for me to personally classify it as a ballad. Like every other song on this album, the guitars are distorted to hell and Zackrisson’s vocal performance is just too over the top for me to classify this as a relaxing power metal ballad. That being said, Dragonisle is still an excellent song with its slowly moving and long mid-range riffs, the catchy chorus, and Zackrisson’s soaring vocals. Additionally, Dragonisle is the one track in which there is a keyboard. However, this keyboard really only plays for a short amount of time, long removed from any sort of vocal parts or important guitar parts. In all actuality, it just sort of seems to be a transition for breakdowns and the narrative-like nature of Dragonisle, which clocks in at around 7 minutes. While Dragonisle is quite a long track, it is entertaining throughout and is a standout on In a Time of Blood and Fire.

Lay of Ennui is probably my favorite track on In a Time of Blood and Fire. Like every other track on this album, it has the same quirks, yet it is a little more upbeat and is slightly more distinguishable from other tracks. The main riff played throughout the song is memorable and melodic, but my favorite park is the chorus, not just for being catchy but the guitar work. There are a few other tracks that possess polyphonic chorus such as Skyline Flame, but the guitar work during Lay of Ennui, especially during the chorus is masterful.

This is fundamentally and more a power metal album. Ander Zackrisson is playing the role of a power metal vocalist on this album, albeit a less traditional one than the average Michael Kiske wannabe, but he still has the fundamental nature of one, such as the soaring vocals and usually singing “smoothly.” I guess one of the first aspects about the vocals one would notice while listening to this album is just how inexperienced Zackrisson sounds. On some songs such as Dawnspell and Winds of Death, Zackrisson sounds unstable and at times very slightly off key. Power metal and very obvious imperfect vocals don’t usually mix, but on this particular album with its heavy, unpolished, and unconventional production and song writing, I think Zackrisson’s vocals complement the overall sound of the album perfectly.

In conclusion, this is a pretty good somewhat non-traditional power metal album. While some tracks kind of sound the same on here, the overall quality is not really dragged down nearly as much as usual because Nocturnal Rites has a unique style and execution within this album. Also, it lacks a ballad in the most traditional definition of the word. Each song is quite entertaining and fun to listen to, and for that and many other reasons. For the power metal fan, I cannot recommend this album enough due to its unique sound.

In 1995, Nocturnal Rites made its first forage into the full-length market, after releasing a couple of demos that were basically death metal. However, this album is pure straight forward power metal.

This was released during metal's darkest hour, when the forerunners of all heavy music were out of ideas (Sabbath, Helloween) or suffering serious line-up problems (Maiden, Priest). Nocturnal Rites' merit is not to succumb to the likes of the minimalist acts of the time (Pantera, Sepultura, Nirvana and many other talent-less idiots), but instead find their way under the heavy metal banner and play music that truly worshipped the fathers of the genre.

Onto the actual music, this is quite generic power metal heavily influenced by Helloween, but generic doesn't imply bad. Actually, it's very good and the songwriting department has an excellent sense of melody. The production is not the best, but this is a debut you know, and anyway it's still good. I particularly like the very melodic guitar tone that still retains the aggression when going into the bottom end.

The main focus here are the guitars, unlike Rhapsody. You won't find a lot of single-note hyperfast riffs, but instead the guitar lines are full of melodies everywhere, and the melodies keep coming even when Zackrisson sings. By the way, the man has an excellent voice and I still don't know why some people prefer Lindqvist over him since Zackrisson has a very particular voice and, although a bit too nasal and is somewhat an acquired taste, is quite unique.

We start with "Sword of Steel", a fast track that sets the mood perfectly for the rest of the album. No new stuff is being thrown around in terms of musicianship, structure or feeling, this is just good old power metal to raise your fist to. "Skyline Flame" and "Black Death" both have a main riff that will kick your ass, and are overall very similar to the first track.

The fourth, title track is where they spice things up a bit. This is one is a bit more mid-tempo, but the ownage still continues. The guitars really shine throughout the verses and prechorus, the vocals in the chorus and they throw in a good solo. Winnar!

"Dawnspell" and "Lay of Ennui" are rather similar to the first tracks, with the latter having a particularly catchy chorus and thus becoming my favourite. Not a lot to be noted here, as these songs could fit any generic power metal description. The amazing thing here though (and I know I repeat it a lot) is the amount and quality of the guitar melodies and riffs. Not the typical thrash riff, but they always deliver very melodic riffs which are the main thing here.

"Winds of Death" features an interesting section with gang-like vocals that gets repeated some times, not a major change but it's something that wouldn't re-appear later on in the band's career. This song continues in the same line as the ones before it, you will seriously wander how did these guys come up with so many melodies. And the best is that all of them are memorable and work perfectly.

Then the epic feeling starts to rise with "Rest in Peace", especially the long instrumental/solo section, and finally explodes with "Dragonisle", the only track to feature keyboards. From its march-like intro you can already feel the epic-ness (in a good way, not like Manowar...). This one is the slowest track and the longest too, and probably has 1 or 2 riffs only. Don't worry though, what the guitars do all the time shouldn't surprise you... they just hammer out melodies of all sorts till two solos quicken up the pace and then the song ends with the same keyboard melody that started it.

Overall, very recommended to the average power fan and to people getting into it as well.

When a band makes the decision to commit themselves to a certain style of metal, we have to analyze the circumstances that surround the choice itself. In the early 1990s, metal was not dead by any standard, but it was suffering the malady of mediocrity. Helloween was stuck in a funk over what direction to go in musically after loosing principle member and songwriter Kai Hansen. Kai's own project Gamma Ray was first a one time effort to record older material he had written before Helloween fully formed, then morphed into a highly experimental outfit that couldn't draw enough attention to itself. Blind Guardian was still playing traditional Speed Metal with slightly more melody, but in itself could not support a whole genre.

Most of the 80s bands who had pushed the NWOBHM had collapsed into obscurity due to shifting line-ups, and the reins over the direction of metal was handed over to a corrupt version of Thrash, spearheaded by Metallica's later 80s albums and the altered works of bands like Slayer, Anthrax, and Pantera. During this cesspool of second-rate thrash releases, bands like Death were keeping a more aggressive and progressive variation on the Thrash style known as death metal.

Nocturnal Rites was born during this time, and was registered among the ranks of Death Metal bands that were keeping their integrity in the underground scene. However, by the time Nocturnal Rites had released their first demo in 1991, everyone and their grandmother was playing this brand of metal to protest the new direction that Thrash was going. Soon after, Fredrik Mannberg realized that instead of being a member of an over-large group of death metal bands, it would be a better choice to do something that no one had been doing significantly for years, play melodic power metal in the NWOBHM style.

"In a Time of Blood and Fire" is significant not only in that it affirms a style that had been rejected for quite a while as old fashioned, but also in that it rejects the mediocrity that had become mainstream in metal. This is mostly present in the music itself, particularly the melodic style of the songs, and the character of Anders Zackrisson's voice. Although the actual philosophical rejection of the mediocrity of the lyrical content of the post-Metallica thrash would come later with the rise of the other significant Swedish power metal act Lost Horizon, this album aided in the healing process that would bring the spirit of the traditional metal pioneers of the late 70s and early 80s. In the interest of historical perspective, it is also important to note that bands like Helloween, Gamma Ray, and Blind Guardian never compromised their integrity and played a vital role in keeping the style alive and inspiring bands like Nocturnal Rites to join their ranks.

The songs themselves are very straight-forward in their structure, and function as a rather intricant combination of the speed and flash of Judas Priest, the melodic lines and interludes of Iron Maiden, and take no prisoners lyrical content of Manowar, and the energetic spirit of Motorhead. There are keyboards on here, but they are used pretty much for atmospheric effects and are not overly prominent. The only flaw in this album is that the production is slightly sub-par, but the strength of the songs almost make this a non-issue.

There are no bad songs on here. Be it the straight-forward fast rocker approach to instant classics such as "Sword of Steel", "Rest in Peace", "Winds of Death", "Skyline Flame" and "Dawn Spell", or the more complex arrangements of slower tracks like "Black Death", the title track, and the well orchestrated, Ronnie Dio inspired "Dragonisle".

The strongest song on here is "Lay of Ennui", both for it's vocal performance and the guitar work. Although Fredrik Mannberg is not the best lead guitarist and would later switch to rhythm guitar, he does a decent job on here and gives us a rather intricant solo at the intro.

In conclusion, this is a power metal album that will have alot of appeal to fans of traditional 80s metal, particularly NWOBHM. I disagree with some of the other reviewers who compare these guys to Helloween, I don't hear a whole lot of similarities other than the prominent double bass drum work on the faster tracks, but this was not something that Helloween invented. This is classic style Priest/Maiden metal done right.

Come the 90s, we all could agree that the traditional metal, with Iron Maiden, was quite dead. All the leading heavy metal bands from the 80s, suddenly begun to play other (to me much less attractive) styles or simply lost their spark. But then in 1995, and unknown band from Sweden, who actually was comming out of a death metal period, released a solid heavy/power metal album called In A Time Of Blood And Fire. And you couldnt help to notice the riffing, the melodies and vocals and how they reminded of the golden days. This album has what many other generic power metal albums lack nowadays, it hass got IT. The very thing that defines good heavy metal, the same thing Iron Maiden, Manowar, Judas Priest and the rest had during the golden 80s. So how to review this album? Well, Its very originally produced, the guitars are very dark for starters, which adds a cool dimension, and the rest is classically produced. The songs are quite strong, and sometimes you actually get goosebumps. The melodies are simple but effective, a trait that many swedish metal bands had at this time. All in all, very enjoyable and a disc I put on now and then to get inspiration for my songwriting. Nocturnal Rites released two more albums with the first singer, but then he left and the band aquired a boring "perfect" singer and changed their sound into a more modern direction, which was quite sad for me.

My favorite tracks from this album are In A Time Of Blood And Fire and Winds Of Death, they should be your first samples, they will get you hooked for sure.

This album brings absolutely nothing new to the power metal scene, and if you’ve heard, say, one of Helloween’s “Keeper of the Seven Keys” albums, you’ve heard all there is to be heard on Nocturnal Rites’ debut “In A Time Of Blood And Fire”. Well, except possibly the lyrical direction, which is unusually dark and evil for power metal, almost bordering on satanic at some points. The quote “Hear us, prince of darkness – guide us to our dreams. To hold the seven keys, to rule the world beneath” comes to mind, from the absurdly titled “Lay of Ennui”.
But yeah, even though there’s nothing you haven’t heard before on this album, it’s still worth giving a listen if you like your power metal, cause it’s quite well done for a pretty small-time debut. On here, the guitars are in focus, and they bring us a whole crapload of very memorable and catchy leads and melodies, and the solos are fucking excellent too. The songs “Sword of Steel”, “Dawnspell” and the closing epic “Dragonisle” come to mind, but it’s all good stuff, really. Nothing amazingly spectacular here, but nothing bad or subpar either.

The weakest part of the album though, I wouldn’t say is the lack of originality, simply because that doesn’t bother me too much. As I always say, “If it rocks, it rocks”. No, the weakest link of the album is the vocals. This guy is really quite terrible. His voice is rather nasal and extremely annoying, and doesn’t have much of a range either. Thankfully the vocal lines he sings are very well written and memorable - quality power metal stuff, basically - and thus, even the vocals aren’t a complete waste, really.
So if you like power metal, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t like this. And for less extreme power metal fans I’d say this is somewhat recommended as well, as the darker lyrical themes make this less cheesy than your average modern power band. It’s still cheesy, but not quite as cheesy as, say, Stratovarius.

The closing track “Dragonisle” though does have this really cheesy and grandiose keyboard part that serves as both the intro and outro to the song, but personally, I love it. Epic and powerful, the way this particular genre of metal should sound. And the rest of the song is pretty damn solid as well, with the killer lead section in the middle standing out as the highlight of the song.
To name some more good stuff on here, I’d start with the opening track “Sword of Steel”, then “Black Death” with it’s Helloween-worshipping opening riff, and “Dawnspell” with perhaps the catchiest main riff on the album, and also some great moody bass-driven verses.
But “Lay of Ennui” has a damn catchy chorus, and “Winds of Death” has those awesome cool lyrics, and “Rest in Peace” has the middle section with the melodic riff sounding like something out of Running Wild’s “Pile of Skulls”… and so on. Basically, this is just pretty solid power metal, and if you’re a fan of the genre, then you should definitely dig this. Though it is damn hard to find- I lucked out quite recently and found it in a used store for about 10 bucks.

The album I can compare this to the most is their followup, "Tales of Mystery and Imagination". It's not QUITE as good, but it is close - impressive and power metal. The songs tend to be just a tad bit similar, but hey, it's a good formula, run with it.

The best songs on here... probably Sword of Steel, a great introduction. Solid riffage, cool melodic parts and a nice solo... yes, this album has RIFFS - forget your "flower" metal bands, this album is filled with power. Even the vocalist is pretty cool - I think he's quite excellent, though a lot of people are turned off by him. Caveat emptor - look past it, you can get into the solos. Another highlight is the title track, and also Rest in Peace, and the epic closing number, "Dragonisle" is also pretty cool. That one sounds the most different of all of them, especially with the almost thrash riffage under the final solo. It starts off as a ballad and gets heavier - nice epic number, and man what a blazing solo. This album is replete with those.

"Blade of Envy".... okay so this song isn't actually called that. Who knew!! It doesn't make any sense to call a song that, and indeed they didn't. Well, for about 2 years I thought that was the title, until I actually looked. It's called "Lay of Ennui", and ya know what, that makes even less sense... but it is one of the best songs on here. Very cool chorus, even though it makes no sense.

Bad songs? Can't think of any - that's the good thing about this album, that there is no real bottom end - there's a few highlights and a zone of similar numbers that are all pretty decent, even if just a bit unmemorable. A bit similar to each other, but hey, if you like one, you'll like 'em all.

Again - best comparison is the album that came after this. The melodic ideas aren't quite as cool, but close. Worth getting - I hear it's a bitch to find, though.