To get a vague idea of what this quintet sounds like, think of a highly corrosive marriage of death, thrash and heavy hitting hardcore in the vein of Meshuggah, Fear Factory, The Haunted, Opeth and Extol. The end result is more than just a sum of its parts and influences, By Night embody true forward thinking metal and the future of extreme music to come. Without a doubt, A New Shape Of Desperation will leave you distraught and breathless.

 

After a useless (that’s just the way I see things) intro, By Night kicks in with the track ‘The Truth Is Sold’. To be honest…they couldn’t have chosen a better song to start this album. What a power! What a heaviness! Absolutely awesome! At least the start of this album leaves your breathless, that’s for sure!

 

There’s hardly any time for clean and too melodic stuff on the album. It’s all straight forward crushing. Their bio calls them the Swedish ‘killing machine’, a name that fits perfectly in my opinion. The guitars are constantly present accompanied by double bass drums. And the vocalist? Well he is, just like the rest of the band, a pleasure for the ear (of a metalfan of course). He’s screaming his lungs out but does it in such a way that it doesn’t sound like he’s having any trouble doing it. Do not expect a nasty scream like for example The Agony Scene’s Mike Williams* does it, expect a scream in the vein of Rob Flynn (Machine Head)*. (* These are only very rough comparisons, just to give you a bit of an idea.)

 

Fortunately the music sometimes leaves some space to catch a deep breath again before erupting into the next stream of crushing power. This only contributes to the variety in the songs. To me, the music together with the vocals form a whole that makes me wonder why I (and I guess lots of others with me) have never heard of this band before.

 

Seriously, if you want some power (recommendation: speakers very loud!) than you should check this out. I think this is the perfect album for fans of Within Y’s latest album Portraying Dead Dreams. If it was up to me, By Night hasn’t even come close to where they should be within a while.