Drama Noir is another case of a local act that escaped my attention, even if since they started they seem to be quite active in the scene. Based in Corinth, they were founded in 2017 and are already releasing their third full-length, while they also have a split with the German post-black metallers Morgenröthe.
Drama Noir play an atmospheric/symphonic black/death metal style and in “Nightfall Upon The Asylum” a very good and careful job has been done. The songs are mostly up-tempo with nice atmosphere, symphonic parts as well as female soprano vocals in the background at times. The mid-tempo parts are also very good and work well as a break in the general aggressive trend of the band. It is important for me that the musicians of their group are the protagonists, since the songs are based on them with all the above elements acting as a supplement and not as a lead in their music.
Points of reference to understand what one is going to hear in “Nightfall Upon The Asylum” are mainly W.E.B. but also Behemoth, Nightfall at points. The leader of the first Sakis “Darkface” Prekas participates with vocals in one song while one of the two members of Drama Noir who have played on all their releases, the drummer with a thousand bands Nikos “Yngve” Samios, was for a short time on W.E.B. playing at the monument “Tartarus” (2017). So, the relationship between the two bands is not accidental, since they had also shared the stage in a live show some time ago.
The production is great and showcases all the different characteristics of Drama Noir, curated by founder/guitarist/keyboardist Paul “Mephisto” Papathanasiou and Dinos “Psychon” Prassas (Septifclesh). The only thing that I didn’t like was some narrations in “Shepherd Of The Lost” which I believe didn’t fit either the song or the general direction of the record. But this is in my opinion a small issue on an overall very good release.
