MIDNIGHT - Sakada
June 2, 2005, 19 years ago
(Black Lotus)
Can it be that nearly 15 years has lapsed since the last Crimson Glory platter? After his re-emergence at the BWBK Fest in 2004, those that saw his jaw-dropping performance salivated at the prospect of new material. During that set he debuted a disturbing track about “mountain people” titled ‘Miss Katie’. That track is released on Sakada and is even more disturbing after a few re-listens to absorb the lyrics. This tone of general disturbance is found throughout the album, with Midnight introducing us to a wide range of characters, situations and states of mind, all of which are complex and none of which are upper crust. Depending on your point of view you may initially hear humour, but once the context sinks in the humour you thought you heard quickly becomes anything but. Midnight has a gift of lyrical contradiction, such as the sane person with insane thoughts, a seemingly normal person with disturbing actions, the calm exterior masking violent undertones and all of these mentioned traits in reverse. Could this really be Midnight’s intent, or is he screwing with our minds? We’ll never know, and frankly that’s the way it should be. Musically the album requires multiple listens to comprehend the stark complexity - not really “metal”, but a sound exercise in hard rock, elements of acoustic Zeppelin and even some psychedelia. Was it worth the wait? You bet.
