THE NIGHT ETERNAL started in Essen at the end of 2018. A self-titled EP on Dying Victims Productions came in 2019, then a 7″ for Ván Records, then two albums for the same label: Moonlit Cross in 2021 and Fatale in 2023. Both did well in the German press: Moonlit Cross won the Deaf Forever Soundcheck, came second in Metal Hammer and third in Rock Hard, and Deaf Forever readers named the band Newcomer of the Year, while Fatale took the Rock Hard Soundcheck two years later. Cold Velvet is their third album and their first for Metal Blade, out on 21 August 2026.
I did not get much from it the first time, and it took a few listens before the songs started to open up, after which they kept opening up further. The exception was "Eurydice (Don't Look Back)", which grabbed me straight away: it is track two, sitting between two of the three songs Metal Blade picked as advance singles without being released as one itself, and for me it is better than either of them. Something else you notice on a first pass is that it sounds like there are no guitar solos, when in fact they are there, mixed into the songs at the same level as the rhythm parts so that they go by without asking for attention. Two guitarists and no showcase moments is an unusual way to build a record like this.
Genre-wise it is solid hard'n'heavy with gothic metal touches, which Metal Blade file as melancholic heavy metal; either way it is not new territory, THE NIGHT ETERNAL are good at working in it, and the gothic element stays a tint rather than a direction. The vocals are what the album leans on hardest: Ricardo Baum is given a lot of room, and everything he sings is soaked in reverb and echo, which is where most of the eighties feel comes from. In places that goes further than atmosphere, as on "Caught in a Spell", which rides a mid-tempo gallop while the line sitting on top of it comes closer to eighties pop, almost disco in its phrasing, and the chorus hook on the 'I am caught in a spell' line is a strong one.
Michael Zech of SECRETS OF THE MOON recorded, produced and mixed the album at Church Of Sound Studios near Munich between May and December 2025, the band's first time working with him. There is more range here than any one song suggests: "The Veins of Time" is quicker, with a chorus that is catchy and melancholy at once, while "The Watcher of the Burning Veil" goes the other way as the most straightforwardly classic heavy metal song here and one of the most powerful, complete with old-fashioned 'ohh-ohh' refrains.
Eight tracks that hang together while still sounding like individual songs, and that balance is easy to get wrong: there is no concept tying it up and no linking passages, just songs clearly written for the same record. Two albums on Ván built the band a reputation that never travelled beyond Germany, and this one deserves to go further.
Promo provided by Earsplit PR and Metal Blade Records.