NIGHT VIPER - Exterminator

November 15, 2017, 6 years ago

(Listenable)

Mark Gromen

Rating: 7.5

review heavy metal night viper

NIGHT VIPER - Exterminator

What is it with all these “Night” bands lately? Hailing from Sweden, this quintet feature a pair of females within their leather clad ranks, on drums and vocals. Although the same gender, Sofie–Lee Johansson (of Asian descent, despite the Scandinavian surname) doesn't share aural similarities with the well-known crop of female fronted metal bands. There's no operatic in her voice, but rather akin to Ann Wilson (Heart) and the first generation of rougher edged American metallers like Betsy Weiss (Bitch) or original Znowhite singer Nicole Lee. The music is likewise a mix of late ‘70s hard rock (especially the vintage guitar tones) traditional metal. Speedy heads down (proto-thrash) riffing and fuzzy guitars are the rule on the “No Escape” opener. With virtually no space between the tracks, “Summon The Dead” jumps right into (the fire?) a vintage Metallica inspired shuffle. Whole thing is over in less than three minutes! 

Follow-up “Never Win” begins with a little subdued noodling, before the whole band kicks in, augmenting the length to 4:10. Dirty, gritty tones are the rule on “Never Win” and (especially) the riff-happy title cut. In the middle of the disc, they opt for two of the longest options. The mid-tempo rocker “On The Run”, with its repetitive titular phrase comprising the lion share of the lyrics, could be something out of the AC/DC canon. At nearly six minutes, it's only outdone by the 6:55 disc closing “All That Remain”. On the other end, there's the howling guitar punk of 1:41 “Going Down”. Lemmy would have approved of “Lady Bad Luck”, lyrical territory he lived throughout his lifetime: “Bad luck is better than no luck at all”. Quick hitting “Revenge” prefaces the aforementioned, acoustic guitar introduced finale. Eventually, it gets around to the gruffer sound. Overall, high energy, no nonsense.



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