Demo Title: Come Out Wherever You Are!
Band Members: Stavros J. - vocals; Kostas - guitar; Ares - guitar; Apostolis - bass; Panos - drums
Location: Athens, Greece
Rating: 4 Skulls
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Band Name: Nocta
Demo Title: Come Out Wherever You Are! Band Members: Stavros J. - vocals; Kostas - guitar; Ares - guitar; Apostolis - bass; Panos - drums Location: Athens, Greece Rating: 4 Skulls
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Redwolff's Review:
Nocta is a band reformed - after an initial offering, Prima Nocta, was "doomed to sink in the gutter of Greek reality, otherwise described as syrtaki dance, bouzouki and Greek folklore for the tourists," Nocta became a cover band until they found a new singer in Stavros J. and created this second demo. This time, the music is thowback Sabbath-era metal with a slightly doomy flavor, and sung in English, rather than hard rock with Greek lyrics. As it is a kind of four-song homage to the birth of heavy metal, the band is doing nothing new with their sound, but for what it is, Come Out is a well-done recording. The musicians are talented, the singer has a strong voice, and the production is one of the best I've heard in a demo.As mentioned, all four songs are identifiable as being Sabbath worship, with slow tempos that almost, but not quite, sink to doom speed; despite this similarity, Nocta has written four distinctive tunes that amply show off their abilities. The second track, "Beam of Light," is the only weak spot, with its boring, ballad-like intro that goes on a bit too long. If I had not had the patience that I do, I might have given up on it and skipped to the third track, not waiting for the more energetic part of the song to kick in. In this day of metal, I'm not sure where a throwback band like this would fit in, however. They are too fast for fans of the stoner/doom genres, and will put any thrashers or hardcore kids to sleep. With this demo, Nocta is a grey area between the blacks and whites of metal genres; the good thing is that I don't think there are many bands today doing this sound, so at least they will be relatively unique.
The band's presentation could be better: the inside of the CD liner, detailing the history of the band, is blown up from another source and therefore pixelated and blurred, and has many (understandable) mistakes made by one whose first language is not English. In addition, their website does not load. However, they do have one song, their bio and a picture of their album on download.com, and this was easily found with a Google search.
This is one of the better demos I've received and I think the band has promise, I just hope they are able to carve out a niche for themselves.
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