Search - Nightmare :: Cosmovision

Nightmare Triumphs

Mr D. | Cave Creek, Az United States | 09/17/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Sixteen years after the release of their second album, French Power/Heavy Metal band Nightmare, released their third album, Cosmovision, thereby doubling the time it took Boston to complete it's second release.



Well, I'm here to tell you, it was worth the wait. I haven't heard the first two albums, which were released before some of you were born, but it heard they weren't anything special. On Cosmovision, they have made significant changes which have made it a pleasure to listen to.



First, our, now middle aged, musicians turned over the singing to their former drummer, Jo Amore who has turned over the percussion to his younger brother David. Though guitarists Nicolas De Dominicis and Jeannot Strippoli, maintain a mostly galloping Heavy Metal beat, they've added some background vocals by band members and a five member choir and thirdly the songs are very well written(except track 2 & 6 sound alike). I don't know which band member wrote the songs (all songs by Nightmare) but they are excellent and quite melodious and Jo Amore's vocals are just a little different, in a positive way. On some songs he sounds like Ronnie Dio, in fact, if I played track 5, "The Church" for you and told you it was Dio (the Band) I'll bet you'd believe me.



The other songs such as track 2 "Cosmovision" track 7 "Necropolis" and track 12 "Riddle in the Ocean" strongly remind one of Therion but overall the album has a rougher more heavy metal edge, thereby keeping you from confusing the music with Therion or even Dio.



Strangely, the 10th track, "The Spiral of Madness" has a slightly slower, Queensryche feel to it, like something out of Operation Mindcrime.



Killer Tracks



Cosmovision, Spirits of the Sunset, The Church, Behold the Nightime, Necropolis, The Spiral of Madness, Riddle in the Ocean



Conclusion



Cosmovision is a concept album outlining some vague notion that the ancient indians of South America were visited by inter - galactic travelers, an interesting concept previously proposed by German Author Ertich von Daniken in 1968 in his blockbuster book Chariots of the Gods.



I kept vacillating back and forth on whether to rate this a four or a five star album. I the end I opted for a high four star, mostly because tracks 2 and 6 sound so similar."

This is truly quite incredible...

Matt Stoessel | Tolland, CT USA | 05/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is so cool!!! The overall bass sound gives it a more "heavy" metal feeling than you might expect, and there aren't that many keyboards, but trust me - this album is very good. Listen to the sample of the title track if you don't believe me. Those choirs are about as powerful as they come. The songs aren't very long, but with 12 (maybe 11) tracks, you get your money's worth. This isn't prog-like metal. This is fantasy-ish. What I'm trying to say by that is that the album is a story about some lines with ancient South American cultures. Its very interesting to read what they printed in the lyric booklet. There isn't a keyboardist, but trust me - you will be taken to another dimension if you listen to this beast of an album at night, especially the title track. The vocalist is awesome and has a SOMEWHAT scratchy voice, but the choirs make you forget about him every once and a while. There is 1 verse sung with a female vocalist. The guitar riffs are very well done. Speed? Average, for the most part. One song is quite fast. The drums are VERY much like on Manowar's "Warriors of the World" (the whole album), AND so is the overall tempo. The fastest song is near the end and there aren't any really fast songs until then. Another great thing about the album is the SECOND song (3rd track). It doesn't disappoint you after a great opener!!! When I finished this song, I knew I was in for a treat for the next 40 minutes. No song exceeds the 6 minute mark, and I think only 2 go into the 5 minute range. If you're interested, there is one line of one song that will get stuck in your head, kind of like the way the chorus of Queen by Ram-Zet does. "and I will be home by nighttime," is part of that song's chorus. Its somewhere around track 8ish. Some people have said that this band is competition for Hammerfall and Helloween. Nightmare doesn't compare to Helloween that much, but I'd say that they beat Hammerfall. Just compare the title track to Heart's on Fire. Helloween is more melodic metal than fantasy/epic metal, so I won't compare Nightmare to them. I recommend this album to any fan of melodic/power/epic/fantasy metal, even progressive metal. You should love it. The only problem is that after the title track, there aren't any more powerful songs, so there isn't anything to look forward to after the 1st song. I just read the other guy's review. Yeah, I do remember tracks 2 and 6 being alike. I also remember going to their website and noticing how much newer-looking this album was than the previous ones. So, I guess the 16 year wait explains all the "heavy" metal comments from above. When you get the time, please say if my review helped you and then go read some of my other reviews. Thanks for reading."