review: Niviane -- classic-style heavy metal

Niviane

The Ruthless Divine

Pure Steel Records

October 30th, 2020

1. League of Shadows 05:17

2. Crown of Thorns 05:11

3. Dreams Crash Down 05:28

4. The Ruthless Divine 04:52

5. Fires in the Sky 06:56

6. Fallen from Elysium 06:07

7. Forgotten Centurion 05:42

8. Niviane 05:41

9. Psychomanteum 04:27

10. Sinking Ships 07:40

11. Like Lions 04:54

01:02:15

Niviane has been around only for about six years, according to the information on Metal Archives. They have two studio albums: The Druid King in 2017 and The Ruthless Divine in 2020. The 2017 album’s duration was almost 58 minutes. The new one goes over the hour mark. The reason that such a new name already has two albums, and two very long albums at that, is that the musicians are veterans that have been in a bunch of bands in California and other parts of the U.S., like Restrayned, Seventh Call-ing, Graveshadow, Hellscream, Imagika and a handful of other names. The 2020 line-up is Aaron Robitch (keyboards), Noe Luna (drums), Norman Skinner (vocals), Gary Tarplee (guitars), Rick Stallkamp (bass), and Mark Miner (guitars).

This album has two outstanding traits on offer to the fans of classic-style heavy metal. The first is that the band checks all the boxes for the songwriting. The beats, the feel, the sound, the riffs, the shredding, the solos, the sensation that “this is heavy metal” to the marrow of their bones. What is classic-style heavy metal in 2020? It’s Niviane working proudly with the templates of heavy metal. The second advantage that the band has is the singing. Norman Skinner [Hellscream, Imagika, Skinner, ex-Machine Called Man, ex-Dire Peril, ex-Tramontane, ex-Utopian Trap, ex-Katagory V (live), ex-The Conse-quence of Chaos] possesses both a pair of powerful lungs and a diverse set of skills. He hits the air raid siren notes in the Halfordian style. He also does a melodic and somber voice that comes across as a gentle, pleasant style of singing, which is a marked con-trast from the super strong, deep, heroic, hard-hitting singing that he also does. Fans of the style should be interested in hearing this for themselves.

The Ruthless Divine by NIVIANE

NIVIANE - "The Ruthless Divine" CD @ PURE STEEL SHOP https://www.puresteel-shop.com/NIVIANE-The-Ruthless-Divine_1

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