MIDNIGHT

MIDNIGHT have been a formidable and prolific force over the last two decades. Founder and chief creative force Athenar has never deviated from his love of filthy, speed-fueled heavy metal, and underground diehards love him for it. After two particularly great studio records, last year's "Hellish Expectation" and 2022's "Let There Be Witchery", he has taken a slight detour here. Both an album of covers and a tribute to heavy metal hinterland of his native Cleveland, "Steel, Rust And Disgust" might have been a huge departure, but as his recorded works to date seem to suggest, Athenar is proudly myopic with regard to what his band does. Entirely in the spirit of his own original music, these blasts from the obscure past explain a lot about why MIDNIGHT sound the way they do. Comprising covers of proto-punk, proto-metal, and infernal country rock songs that the frontman has subsumed into his uncompromising musical stance, this is far more revealing and enjoyable than many like-minded projects. It is also an absolute boon for the nerdiest amongst us. Most of the songs selected were originally by bands from Cleveland, and few of them will be known by most listeners. In effect, this makes "Steel, Rust And Disgust" as freshly foul as anything in MIDNIGHT's discography, with covers of songs by DEAD BOYS and SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS being by far the most high profile.

There are two exceptions to the covers album rule: "Cleveland Metal" and the title track are both freshly minted MIDNIGHT skull-crushers. With a little more looseness and chaos in their delivery than is the norm, both fit snugly in with the rest of these songs boding well for the band's next full-length album of original material. In the meantime, this cavalcade of repurposed tunes is a boss-level stopgap. "Cleveland Metal" is the perfect preparatory overture, with lines like "Our veins bleed mercury!" and "We need it heavy as lead!", and a general air of belligerence that continues for the album's duration.

Savage sprints through the likes of "Iron Beast" (originally by dirty thrash mob KRATOS) and "I'm Insane" (from cult thrashers SYNASTRYCHE's "The Attack Begins" debut from 2003) set the tone, but it's "Final Solution" (originally by ROCKET FROM THE TOMBS) that makes the biggest splash. It is a bloody chunk of gruesome, brutal rock 'n' roll, lobbed through the nearest open window like a hand grenade. Similarly, MIDNIGHT's twisted take on SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS classic "Frenzy" swaps the original's spookiness for a barrage of spiky, POISON IDEA-style hardcore.

Of the remaining tracks, a furious version of DEAD BOYS' "3rd Generation Nation" is a thrilling alternative to hundreds of versions of the same band's "Sonic Reducer", and a very fine piece of adrenalin-bloated snot-rock; RUBBER CITY REBELS' "Child Eaters" marries an obnoxious Athenar monologue to slow-burning suburban punk; "Rock N' Roll Fever" turns the DAVID ALLAN COE original into a turbocharged, Forest City garage rock riot; and a brace of songs by pioneering, pre-punk mavericks ELECTRIC EELS hammers home the notion that Cleveland has both its own scabrous musical inclinations, and a firm grip on the spirit of the earliest punk rock outlaws.

A labor of love that crackles and sparks with authenticity, "Steel, Rust And Disgust" is a heavyweight covers album, and an admirable addition to MIDNIGHT's story. Best played unfathomably loud, obviously.