DARK NIGHTMARE - being a Greek 'epic' Metal band - resembles enough to the country's general traditional Metal scene, but also boasts some unique attributes placing them on their own banquette. The result - widely seen in the quintet's The Human Liberty debut album - will possibly attract the interest of metalheads keen on the epic/lyric side of classic Heavy Metal Metal long ago deployed in the USA but quite often re-arranged by European Metal bands the last years.
Having seen DARK NIGHTMARE performing live a couple of times in the recent past, what stroke me the most was their clear will to stay away from the pretentious True Metal musical camouflage by endorsing a more pompous yet genuinely metallic approach, based on mythology/battle-related topics surrounding an anyway exhibitive songwriting formula, as described below. So, in terms of music itself DARK NIGHTMARE vividly exposes a sensational scope friends of epic Metal will surely find attractive. On the other hand, the production of the album barely survives the self-financed wounds Greece suffers from (thanx to the guitars/keys sound things the retention of an adequate level is just won) and it's up to the listener's experience/likes to judge on the overall CD value. And that's quite a shame since the songs themselves range from good ones to killers, the same time that the musicians present an excellent technical skill, too.
Harmony Of The Universe bursts out being quite lyric and traveling, with nice leads and an epic widespread atmosphere; a fine instrumental piece leading to Invaders's up-tempo melodic glorious path, featuring a set of expressive backing keys and enough of a DOOMSWORD-meets-WARLORD narrative vibe. Hawks Of War speeds things up carrying a similar ambiance, but the drums sound seems to be quite poor in regards to the song's needs (soon to be repeated, sadly). Blood Land returns to the victorious tempo pattern, with some excellent vocals backed up by - once again - an impressive string of leads and keys. World Of Ilussions has a galloping yet quite gloomy JAG PANZER/TITAN FORCE rhythm succeeding in a great chorus upgrading the whole track into being one of my favorites on the album; the guitars leads strike hard in this tune again.
Brotherhood Of Money turns to be the most in-your-face Metal song in The Human Liberty, adding another excellent tune in the tracklist, the same time that Don't Give Up's neat simplicity is nothing less than welcome in the listener's ear (I remembered fellow Greek warriors VALOR in this one). Dragonlakes returns to more 'warrior' paths and actually is a song you'll fall in love with if a mix of THUNDER RIDER, DIO, BATHORY and RUNNING WILD is your cup of tea; a pompous epic Metal song that has nothing to be jealous of (the intermezzo kicks ass!), being maybe the flagship for the whole album. Obsessions suffers from a weak guitar sound in its first seconds, but clearly evokes a mystique tone through its well-crafted attack-full parts. Planked Soul Of Sorrow's 10-minute exploit hybridizes the murk of Doom Metal with the imposingness of heroic tales creating an ideal outro after nearly an hour of audition.
DARK NIGHTMARE's debut work is the kind of album you'd kill for if the sound/production stood in a level. Omitting this specific factor, The Human Liberty presents a band with a clear tendency to write and perform good epic/heavy/power Metal music without being copycats; and that's a strong case having traditional Metal music's glut in mind. Recommended, at last? Yes.

P.S.: Laughing at it or not, I think it's rather elementary in these days to have an updated official site and well-structured MySpace page...