Italian one-man black metal unit Chiral has had a busy couple of years, with no fewer than seven releases - an assortment of demos, splits and full-lengths - being recorded since 2014. Chiral’s first demo, Winter Eternal, channeled Dissection prominently and follow-up Abisso showed a flair for experimenting, as that release saw Chiral unafraid to merge the Dissection influence with Ulver’s most melancholic passages. Abisso’s song-writing hinted at a potentially impressive future, but Night Sky sees Chiral taking steps backwards, despite a huge developmental leap.

Night Sky is undoubtedly a progression, as the album reaches much further than its predecessors. But Night Sky might be too ambitious, as the tracks sometimes suffer from acoustic guitars and pianos looking to be eloquent by being mixed way too high, as well as what sounds like a harmonica (?!) featured prominently on first track, “My Temple Of Isolation”. Elsewhere, “Nightside II: Sky Wonder” is reminiscent of ‘90s Goth metal like Tristania, with all of the connotations that band carries -- enough said. At its core, Chiral is best when it writes aggressive black metal – it’s this material that is the band’s strongest, and holds the most promise. There’s nothing wrong with ambition of course, but the whole here suffers from the disjointed, overly dramatic and out of place parts (we're looking at you, harmonica).