Let's start out with a little background. This is from the information pack: 'The name BLACK NAZARETH is related to the city, Schiedam, where we started. The nickname of Schiedam is "Black Nazareth".' So, we are talking about music coming from my own nation, without me realising it. We have two people who used to work together in THRENODY (Menno Gootjes and Henry McIlveen), one from WITHIN TEMPTATION (Martijn Spierenburg) and the last one from TEXTURES (Daniël de Jongh). If you add all this up, you can only conclude that this is put together by Dutch Musical Royalty. The big question that arises is whether the album that is entering my ears through my headphone is as regal as the provenance would suggest.

Well, we are talking pure Heavy Metal with groove and melody. And they do have a knack for writing good songs that have a lot of body, an abundance of emotion and enough to go by to enlighten any dark times you might have. Not that we are into a Happy metal vibe, but this is light on the senses. Metal, Goth, a bit of Electronica and even some impressive balladry ("Drops Of Sorrow") makes "Black Nazareth" into an extremely varied album. What surprises me most is that singer Daniël de Jongh has the ability to write and sing lyrics in the same way Dave Mustaine does. But, he is also capable of sounding very melodic when using his clear voice.

The instrumentalists all know their stuff really well. The guitars are simultaneously sounding very melodic and menacing, the keyboards are very much an essential part of the sound, the bass is thundering just right and the drums have been programmed with great precision. I don't know, but if you have worked with a drummer and colleague like Stef Broks (TEXTURES) I would have asked him to fill in that spot. Hey, maybe they did and he declined. I don't know.

I must emphasise that BLACK NAZARETH has a lot of potential within its ranks, and I will definitely go and see them live when I can. But, although this is all quite good, it doesn't really get my juices flowing, my heart fluttering or my spine tingling. It does, however, make me enjoy the music a great deal. "Black Nazareth" contains sturdy stuff, very certainly enjoyable, of a decent quality, but never exceptional. At least, not for me.