Nightmare

                                                                            PPM Fest 2013, Mons Lotto Expo, Belgium  14 April 2013

  

Day Two of the excellent PPM Fest in Mons, Belgium promised much, and French metallers Nightmare did not disappoint in the slightest. 

A vast crowd of metal heads had gathered to see the band perform an outstanding set of eight songs.  From the start the band commanded the stage and had the audience enthralled, as the band opened up with 'Sunrise in Hell' from their highly rated and hugely enjoyable 'The Burden of God' album. 

 

Nightmare drew in any stragglers into the throng of heads banged and horns raised. This band is huge in their native France (in fact most of Europe) having recently played Wacken and there seemed to be a lot of Nightmare diehards present.  I am so glad they played a lot of tunes from their recent album as it is brilliant and I was familiar with most of their set, they played the title 'The Burden of God', 'Children of The Nation', 'Shattered Hearts' and finally the 'The Doomsday Prediction' which ended their set.  As well as the newer tracks the band delved into their back catalogue with 'Eternal Winter' and the super,  electrifying addictive 'Crimson Empire' being devoured  by the crowd.  

 

The raw energy and crowd participation was intense and quite spellbinding, when the band played their last song the whole arena kind of swelled up and the band were greeted to one of the loudest cheers of the whole three days. You can see their influences are from the NWOBHM, but updated and Power Metal abounds, they really were one of the highlights of the whole PPM Festival. 

 

These French Metal pioneers were formed originally in 1979, disbanded and reformed in 1999, with eight albums under their belt they have a  loyal fan base and are due to be playing many festivals in the summer.  I would love to see this band in the UK doing a full tour as they ooze enthusiasm and are simply a delight to watch and strain your neck to!  If like me Nightmare has slipped under your radar, grab ahold of their work, check them out on the internet, you really won’t be disappointed.  Also if you haven’t seen it already, the interview with Nightmare is up on The Metal Gods website, and will be featured soon on the Metal Meltdown Cloud Cast.  But most importantly make sure you grab a hold of the bands recent album 'The Burden of God' on AFM Records.

Review by: Seb Di Gatto