NIGHTMARE is a very dark sounding power metal band that hails from France. In all fairness I must point out that this is my first exposure to them, and seeing as this is a live album, I cannot say how they sound like on a studio release. In other words, I have nothing to base any comparisons on. That said they seem quite capable of playing a live show. It is raw, of course, but it is also polished. How can that be? The sound is raw because it is live; it is polished because it is very well played. The vocalist spends too much time showing off his high vocal range, but perhaps I would too if I had that kind of voice. He is very good. I also have no idea if they picked the strongest of their songs from past albums since I have never listened to them.

This is a very good live album. For bands of this nature, (playing in clubs) the bass is normally so high in the mix that it sounds like a mess. It is my belief that bands do this on purpose to hide the faults in their shows. Fortunately, NIGHTMARE did not feel the need to do this, perhaps that is because it was a soundboard recording and they could get the mix just right. You hear enough crowd noise to know it's live, but for the most part, the crowd doesn't ruin the songs. I have never cared much for live albums that have the audience ruining the songs with their incoherent noise. It is nice to hear a live concert without people drowning out the sound. NIGHTMARE has taken this often annoying factor out of the equation by keeping the mix organic. For a power metal band, they are straight ahead meat and potatoes metal. By that I mean there are no keyboards or majestic choirs. This release harkens back to the power metal of the 80's before the keyboards, flutes, violins and pianos made their way into the scene. Fans of power metal done with the basic instruments of metal will like this album. The guitars crunch like mad and the bass is not overbearing.

This band has a varied song list, but then of course it does, it is a compilation in a sense. Live shows tend to be greatest hits packages played in front of an audience and it makes sense for them to play all of their best material. That being the case, it makes sense that the songs would be a source of all areas of the band just by that fact alone. I should also note that this band is like MENUDO in one way, they have a totally different line up than the one they started with. This is the second version of the band. I don't even know why they bothered to do this. How hard would it have been to find a new name? I guess if they wanted to continue to play the original material, then they would either have to keep their name or have the singer go solo so he could do the same thing. HALFORD has done it. Ronnie James Dio did it. Bruce Dickinson did it and on and on it goes. Many metal singers have gone solo and play songs they recorded with their former band mates. Considering this is a new line up, at the very least the band contains fine musicians. The music is well played. You never know what you're going to get when a band is completely reformed and consists of 100 percent new members.

Overall, this is a good live album, but if people don't want to support the band, I can understand that. My favorite band, KISS has stated that when they are done, there will be a KISS 2.0. I can count on two hands how many people on a KISS message board of thousands approve of this. They say without any original members, it simply isn't KISS. I agree with that, so I can see people saying that in this case as well. Back to the music, the band sounds hungry and tight and like they know they are being recorded, which is almost always a good thing. You don't get too many improvisations and over done drumming and out of sync soloing when a band knows it is being professionally recorded for the entire world to hear. Fans of the "band" or should I say "bands" will like this if they can accept that it is not the original band. If you are new to the band, I cannot see you hating it, but this is an almost unique thing in heavy metal. Even the most cobbled together line ups in heavy metal contain at least one original member. PRONG has Tommy Victor. BLACK SABBATH has Tony Iommi and EXODUS had Gary Holt.

I recommend this album to fans of the genre, especially if they like live albums.