NIGHTSTALKER is an Athens, Greece band that apparently dislikes being "labeled" or described as one genre or another. They report that they've been called everything from Grunge to Stoner, but insist what they play is good ol' Rock music. The band's Facebook page lists their three influences as: MOTORHEAD, BLACK SABBATH and FRANK ZAPPA. The first two are pretty common place among the bands I typically review for Metal- Temple, but ZAPPA? I love Frank, and feel his influence in today's music is severely underrated. Consider me intrigued.

The band's current release is their eighth official release. Titled "Great Hallucinations", the album dropped in early October on Heavy Psych Sounds, which is all the more reason to be intrigued as far as I'm concerned. It's rare for me to dislike anything Heavy Psych Sounds releases. They've got a great finger on the pulse of heavy music in general. As is the case here with NIGHTSTALKER's "Great Hallucinations".

The album kicks off with "Black Cloud" and immediately I'm digging the uber fuzzy guitar tone Tolis Matsios is achieving. I'm guessing the Zappa influence primarily originates with Matsios based on his style and tone throughout the remainder of "Great Hallucinations". He's never overly flashy, or overstated. Rather, he submits his contributions perfectly.  Now, the SABBATH influence is much more distinct, as Argy's vocals are very reminiscent of Ozzy's. In fact, very much so. Check out "Cursed". It's  almost creepy how similar the style is to an early 70's Osbourne.  Along the same plane, "Cursed" also displays a Bill Ward influence with Dinos Roulos's drums. Not quite as heavy handed perhaps, but the technique is prevalent for sure. As far as MOTORHEAD, one only has to look to a track such as "Half Crazy" to find Lemmy's influence on bassist Andreas Lagios.

"Great Hallucinations" is a good album, but ultimately it becomes a bit complacent. It begins to all sound the same as it progresses, without enough distinction happening track to track. It's good, but falls a bit short of great, particularly in a year where there have been so many bands putting out really creative and fresh albums. Still, it's got a fun vibe to it, and would definitely appeal to anyone that can't get enough of that SABBATH sound.