When I would hear a piece of music whether it’s metal, progressive music, jazz, or avant-garde music, I know right there and then it grabs me. I don’t want to hear any excuses, no bullshit, just, do you have it or don’t you have it? I’ll admit, I can be a little brutal when it comes to an album whether it moves me or not. But when it comes to Strange New Dawn’s New Nights of Euphoria, it’s like a massive tidal wave coming at you nonstop.
Formed in 2013 at Kristiansand, Agder which is a city in southern city in the heart of Norway, it’s home for its traditional wooden houses, neo-Gothic cathedrals, and the 17th century Christiansholm Fortress rotunda and the fish pier Fiskebrygga (The Fish Wharf) a place for fishmongers to catch their fish, and sell it to the market. Strange New Dawn are a band that carry not only the progressive route, but the sludge, death, and classical approaches that hits you right in your face.
The band considers Muld on keyboards, Ex-Royal on lead vocals, C.M. Botteri on bass guitar, Sven Rothe on drums, and Xbotteri on guitar. The genesis behind the band’s formation goes back 24 years ago from the mind of Xbotteri himself. Cut to 2012 when founding members from Green Carnation and In The Woods where they found their niche. And to be allowed to have Bjørn Harstad on lead guitar from their In The Woods years and appearing on the band’s second album Planet System, which was originally released in 2020 (the pandemic-era), shows the brotherhood, and the friendship they have with each other
With two albums in the can (The Only One and Planet System), their latest release on the Svart Records label entitled New Nights of Euphoria, is like a ticking time bomb waiting to happen. From the moment ‘Journey Within’ starts the album off, Dawn has taken listeners to various horizons by going through this exhilarating powder-keg between Xbotteri and Harstad while Royal ascends from the heavens and gives the townsfolk a story on what he’s about to tell.
There’s a sense of moving forwards and never looking back as Ex-Royal pleads with the crowd to disconnect the past by looking ahead to see what the future will be for them. ‘The Wake of Icons’ bears a striking resemblance to Haken’s first two studio albums (Aquarius and Visions). I can imagine the band are tipping their hat to their fellow progsters, Ross Jennings and Richard “Hen” Henshall.
But there’s the darker concerto momentum Muld does by ascending and descending the spiral staircase once the howling doubling guitar riffs and lead textures take us into the horrors of our own nightmares before Royal transforms into a vicious, snarling beast that is ready to eat human flesh like there’s no tomorrow before segueing into the ‘Fortune Bringer’.
It has a sea shanty arrangement. You feel the presence of being in the middle of the Atlantic, hearing the call and response to the band members, knowing that once they return home, they’ll be different and the journey will haunt them for the rest of eternity. I can hear elements of Blind Guardian thrown into the mix in the final section before they fight the last battle with a roaring crescendo of the doubling guitar sounds to reach dry land.
Then, everything turns into this operatic sing-along suite on ‘Seek It’. I love how Strange New Dawn goes from the new wave of British heavy metal, the powering sounds of Edenbridge, to the Black Holes & Revelations-era from Muse during their golden years. It’s Strange’s response to ‘Knights of Cydonia’ but with the dawning of a new day as the birth of a newborn is heard in effect before, they search for the inner self comes kicking in for the ‘Sons of Galaxy’.
Back to the epic operatic form once more, it has this Elfman-sque and Procol Harum (In Held ‘Twas In I) approach as we witness this mad man who’s on the brink on the losing it all by having this insane breakdown. He had everything, the city that once was, is in the middle of a massive war that’s going on.
Once the corruption starts kicking in, you’re asking for paranoia, and you can no longer be trusted in this galaxy alone. Strange New Dawn have taken me on a whole new world by showing that Metal is more than just a five-letter word.
New Nights of Euphoria is an album that is to be played in the dark with candles lighten in the room. And be prepared for massive listens to get an understanding on why Strange New Dawn aren’t your daddy’s prog band. They don’t sing any songs from Dungeons and Dragons, they are honest and know their source material like a bat out of hell.
