Genetic Disorder

Few stories concerning the resurgence of power metal at the turn of the millennium rival the poignancy of the circumstances surrounding one of France's better kept secrets, namely traditional 80s heavy metal turned power metal revivalist act Nightmare. Originally one of said nation's earliest contributions to the days of arena-filling metallic fanfare, they became yet another casualty of the late 80s and exited the scene for over a decade, only to reform in 1999 for what seemed to be a one-off tribute to classic lineup vocalist Jean-Marie Boix upon his passing the same year. Few fully understood the scope of the public's hunger for a melodic metal revival, and what started as a limited EP and live double album in a style closer to the mid-80s bluster of Power Of The Universe led to the mostly intact original membership of the band riding the tidal wave of power metal into the new millennium with 2001's unsung masterpiece Cosmovision and a somewhat more nuanced and progressive conceptual follow up in Silent Room. With the progression of the decade and changing stylistic winds afoot, not to mention the loss of both classic era guitarists Nicolas De Dominicis and Jean Stripolli, Nightmare was at the proverbial crossroads and opted to embark on an interesting evolutionary path.

The road to change was naturally an incremental one, as is often the case, with this band holding on to some of the Helloween and Stratovarius elements of their early 2000s efforts on 2005's The Dominion Gate while adopting a far more modern production sound and the services of several noted figures in the metal limelight of the day, including Sander Gommans and Floor Jansen of Epica fame to complement the dense backing choir aesthetic held over from Cosmovision. Nevertheless, the second album in this transitional period Genetic Disorder sees a full blown departure from the band's turn-of-the-millennium epic sound for a far more mechanized, progressive-tinged modern sound that is more akin to the exploits of Tad Morose, Mystic Prophecy and the concurrent output of Steel Attack. The backing choirs and keyboards have been entirely jettisoned in favor of a bare-bones, trimmed down and riff driven assault that leans heavy on the aggression, but is somewhat tempered by a melodic scheme in the songwriting and drummer-turned-vocalist Jo Amore's Dio-inspired vocals. Though an extremely drastic change that was arguably more of a departure than the one that occurred with The Dominion Gate, it proves to be Amore's 80s inspired grit and gusto that ties everything together and works in a similarly brilliant fashion that Dio's did on Sabbath's Dehumanizer.

Interestingly enough, there is a subtle remnant of this band's recent history of epic exploits buried in several of these songs, some more immediately apparent that others. The opening crusher "Nothing Left Behind", which gallops at a decidedly mid-paced stomp and follows a fairly standard structure, is nonetheless kicked off with a haunting clean guitar line and a military beat backdrop that sounds fairly similar to late 80s Queensryche, and the rest of the song is peppered with some fairly active lead guitar detailing. The lead chops of this band's replacement duo Hilbert and Milleliri make a fairly regular show of spicing up what is generally a very predictable formula, providing a series of intricate solos and harmonized ornamentation to grooving, hook-driven fair like "Queen Of Love & Pain" and "Leader Of The Masquerade". However, this is an album that excels most when things are either drawn out, as on the slightly scaled back yet highly nuanced and engaging sequel to the last album's title track "The Dominion Gate (Part II)" and the pounding yet consonant closer "Dawn Of Darkness", or when things kick skyward in the tempo department. It would defy logic for any power metal fan to not be utterly captivated by the speed metal-based majesty of "Battleground For Suicide" and "Forsaken Child", arguably two of the most memorable songs from this band post-Cosmovision.

As an entire package, this is a very slight step down from the dark yet consonant excursion into Lovecraftian imagery that was The Dominion Gate, and marks the beginning of a period of qualitative middling where things would become more and more predictable with each album. The best way to describe it is as the Blade to Cosmovision's classic Dracula storytelling, as the mystique and lofty storytelling to a massive atmospheric backdrop has given way to a colder, technological fable steeped in Dystopian imagery and bereft of any degree of escapism. In the abstract, one is not necessarily better than the other and there is precedent for such changes in direction occurring successfully when looking at some of the bands that directly influenced this one such as Black Sabbath, Dio and Judas Priest, but in Nightmare's case they proved more competent when sticking closer to their 80s roots. By all standards, this is a good album that stands tall at a time when a number of power metal bands were becoming overly stylized and formulaic, but those looking for the sort of early 2000s melodic consonance and fantastical imagery of yesteryear will find a very different creature here, as if the dark album imagery hadn't already made that point clear enough.

Apparently this band has been around since '79. Which is interesting to note; being that on one hand, you can see it, and on another you can't. What I mean by that, is this band has some real traditional vocals, and guitar work. But there is some heavier/new school production, and some real speed/thrash riffs and drum parts. Which makes for a tasty mix, actually.

The vocals in some of the choruses and verses really have a Maiden or Dio feel. Queen of Love and Pain has that old school "rockin'" Dio, traditional metal sound. Then tracks like Winds of Sin (maybe the best track) is pure speed metal.

The vocals could afford to be more up front in the mix, and the guy is a really solid singer, but I think he needs to act more like he's gonna kill somebody sometimes. He's not on 11 on the "balls" meter. Some the tracks are pretty lackluster; however most tracks start out very promising. It just seems like the songs aren't fleshed out to their full potential.

Quite nice on the whole, it's right on the fringe of being truly worthwhile. I think this band has a lot of potential, if they would hone what they're doing here, it would be really kickass. Unfortunately it lacks direction, some refinement and much needed punch.

Standout tracks to check out are Winds of Sin, Battleground For Suicide and A Thrill of Death.

I had never heard of this band before I heard one song with them on Bruce Dickinson’s radio show. The song was “Battleground For Suicide” taken from this album and I liked it immediately, really digged it. Pure heavy metal with touches of the 80’s, and I then checked around and saw that they’ve been around since 1979 and that they are from France. I could never’ve guessed!

Nightmare plays classic traditional metal in the same path such as Judas Priest and Accept. Without any sissy keyboards growing all over the place, just plain and straight metal that gets your head banging. The thing I was most surprised about at first though was the singer Joe Amore. A real talent! Sounding like a mixture of Ronnie James Dio and Bruce Dickinson and something own. He mostly keeps his voice in a lower register, but screams out in some parts and he shows there that he should have done them more often (check out the screaming at about 3:21 forward in “Wind of Sin”). Joe clearly is a real ‘scream-machine’ as well, so a singer with much variation, and that’s always positive. When talking about the production, there’s not much flaws there. Handled by Fredrik Nordström here, and as always I think he has done a great job. Especially the guitars have a raw and heavy tone. Very modern sound in general. The band lines up some cool tunes on here that surely must fit great at live shows. Most songs have big-sounding choruses with gang-vocals, very catchy melodies that they have worked well with on several songs.

The little downfall with the album sadly lies in the most usual thing, it is not very consistent and contains some less interesting songs. “Leader of the Masquerade” doesn’t heat up as much as other songs, neither does “A Thrill Of Death” (though with good riffing) or “Final Procession”. But these three songs should not scare anyone away.

“Genetic Disorder” is a fresh, heavy and catchy album that Nightmare should be proud of. I’m sure the band had a crowd of fans out there before the release of this one, but I would be very surprised if they didn’t increase that crowd with this album. Something for you who’s looking for some heavy metal with modern production. Absolutely recommended.

3 best songs: Battleground For Suicide, Queen of Love And Pain, Winds of Sin