Nights Like These
Sunlight At Secondhand

We need more nights like these. The world, at least the musical one, would become a better place. Especially because the desire to engage with other realities, striving to make a meaningful creative contribution, would prevail. It would also unequivocally demonstrate that the multitude of underground bands (always excluded by "certain" media channels, whether written, spoken, or "downloaded") could emerge and find their own place in the spotlight. We've truly had enough of a culture, especially in this place called Italy, where it seems that only those who perform "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi for the millionth time (for a well-to-do and wealthy audience) or serve up disgraceful garbage in Italian style are counted.

Similar thoughts and similar instinctive inclinations towards destruction are clearly born from the sound that accompanied me while writing this review. Therefore, it’s important to clarify, for those who haven’t had the luck to encounter the band during their debut album ("The Faithless") in 2006, that Nights Like These are dedicated to a powerful blend of metal in its least palatable forms: sludge, slowed-down thrash/death, and solid power groove, as well as dark hardcore interpreted according to post-apocalyptic writing rules and with a Neurosis-like mood, which further embellishes them. Devastating pace (sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but never crawling), downtuned guitars, constantly evolving sound dynamics, and a progressive approach to composition (relying on complex supporting structures), all coupled with a constant heaviness, both in sound and atmosphere (almost psychotic, as well as psychedelic), characterizes each of the ten tracks. Very well.