Midnight – Complete and Total Hell (2012)

After not getting enough of Midnight with their debut full-length release “Satanic Royalty”, this compilation delivers 21 catchy songs that spawn all their pre full-length debut years (eight years and several EP’s and splits). Hailing from Cleveland (WTF), this band is one of the catchiest and most engaging Black/Speed/Heavy Metal bands these days, no other Black’n’Roll band comes close to them.

Covering their complete early catalogue (minus few tracks), this release shows an interesting progression in the band’s sound (and recording quality). Track like “All Hail Hell”, “I Am Violator”, “Long Live Death”, and “Endless Slut” have that nasty sound and a very sleazy vibe to them, just like one would expect from a truck driver hanging out at a high-school female volleyball game.

Reminding us in some tracks (musically) to old Venom and Hellhammer, this band has a very unique old-school sound that they have managed to make it fresh and cool again. Moving on with more old-school anthems like “… On The Wings of Satan”, “Turn up the Hell”, and “Vomit Queens”, the band keeps showing their ‘skills’ for writing original song names and very goofy lyrics. With a shifting sound quality in this release, we would have liked it more if the band would have re-recorded all tracks with a cleaner production (sort of like on “Satanic Royalty”) but we can’t complain since finding all these tracks separately would have been hell (and quite expensive).

If you are a big fan of the band’s ‘debut’ full-length release, you definitely need to get this compilation and enjoy how the band has evolved over time. Getting 21 songs and around 70 minutes of music from this exciting band is a deal you cannot pass on, so head over to Hells Headbangers Records and pull the trigger on this one.

Release: October 12th, 2012

Genre: Black/Speed/Heavy Metal

Country: USA