MIDNIGHT are releasing a live album, which is the last thing anyone — including the man who runs the band — expected. "Satanic Attack Live!" arrives November 6 via Metal Blade Records, drawn from two sold-out nights at the Hollywood venue Knucklehead on May 28 and 29, 2026, recorded as part of the Cleveland outfit's "Satanic Royalty 15th Anniversary World Tour."
The concept is straightforward and, for a band this devoted to filth, unusually tidy: the record runs all ten tracks from 2011's landmark "Satanic Royalty" live and in the original album sequence, then adds five more — "Holocausting Deafening," "Shock Til Blood," "T.A.P.," "Fucking Speed And Darkness" and "F.O.A.L." Mark Borders handled the recording, with Zach Rippy on mixing and mastering duties.
"Did I ever think there would be a MIDNIGHT live, in concert record album? Haha shit, naw!" said Jamie "Athenar" Walters, the band's sole architect. "With the help of D.K. Vagslay, Iron Possessor and about 300 dirt merchants and headbanging Hollywood sleazeballs, it was possible to concoct such a document of disgust."
"Satanic Attack Live!" will be issued on CD and digital, plus vinyl in several colour variants with an included poster.
Athenar has been at this for more than two decades, spewing demos, splits, EPs and albums into the metal-punk underground under a one-man banner. He played in the Cleveland band BOULDER before starting MIDNIGHT, and the project has stayed deliberately solitary on record — he hires a guitarist and drummer only for the live shows.
"I was tired of being in a band situation," he once told the Cleveland Scene. "You know how it is having to answer to this person or that person. I just wanted to make music I wanted to hear. I do all the stuff myself. I play all the drums and do all the singing and play all the crap that's on there. I do it all."
That single-mindedness is exactly what "Satanic Royalty" bottled fifteen years ago, and why the anniversary tour worked well enough to justify a live document. The album that gave the run its name remains the clearest statement of the MIDNIGHT formula — speed, sleaze, blackened punk and hooks sharp enough to survive the grime.
"Satanic Attack Live!" track listing:
- Unholy And Rotten
- Evil Like A Knife
- Satanic Royalty
- You Can't Stop Steel
- Rip This Hell
- Necromania
- Black Damnation
- Lust Filth And Sleaze
- Violence On Violence
- Savage Dominance
- Holocausting Deafening
- Shock Til Blood
- T.A.P.
- Fucking Speed And Darkness
- F.O.A.L.