It's been 9 years since French Death Metallers SOLEKAHN released their first full length album, "The Great Divider". Despite this long gap, the band haven't let their standards slip, and have come back with a fairly decent offering.

If I had one criticism of this album, it's that it can feel a little disorganized at times - it seems to me that there's some bits that feel like they've just been thrown in, and don't really mesh with the rest of the song. The beginning of the final song, "Separate Part, Separate Art", is a good example - there's about a minute and a half of some weird synths stuff before it gets into the sound we're used to hearing, and it seems particularly out of place to me. But when the band is in the full throes of Death Metal, it's everything you'd expect. It's all extremely fast, with the guitars battering along non-stop like a bat out of hell. But along with the territory of it being everything you'd expect out of a Metal album that means it's also nothing overly special. The band tries to put in different acoustic and keyboard bits within the songs, but they don't work all that well for me. It's a solid album, sure, but it can seem a little too 'try hard' at times. They're best when they just stick to the traditional Death Metal, but luckily these extra parts don't make up the majority of the album.

Saying all that though, the production side of things is very impressive, you can tell that they have worked for a long time on "Nightlights". As a full package, it's all very slick and well-polished. The guitars are as fast and frantic as they should be, and the vocals are so brutal that they'll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. So whilst the new things they try (new for the genre, anyway) don't really work out in my opinion, the overall view of the album is a good one, and one I think the band will be proud of. It's hard hitting, and I think it might win over a few new fans who are already into Death Metal, but weren't aware of the band's previous release. And yes, this is only their second full length album, so they've got plenty of time to polish up their sound and ideas, and hopefully come back with something even better.

For all that I've said, "Nightlights" definitely impressed me, and I would recommend it to any who already like Death Metal, because SOLEKAHN take an interesting approach to it that might appeal to others, but unfortunately not me.