In 2001, most melodic black metal fans must have been stunned by a band so original in their musical style that it could be put against the biggest bands on the dark and eerie black metal hill. Of course I’m talking about the band Tidfall, who made quite a big impact in the scene. Unfortunately for them, the band stayed underground while having released the great record going by the title of “The Instinct Gate”. Nuclear Blast had signed a very good band and the media was definitely feeling the same vibe. Like every band, this band also has its history with line-up changes and what not, but like every band, they come back, bigger and better than ever before.

And this is exactly what happened to Tidfall. “The Instinct Gate” already showed that replacing their former singer with current singer/bassist Sorg was a great step. But this new release, simply entitled “Nucleus”, shows that the band has grown a lot since that great last record. Tidfall has perfected and outdone themselves with “Nucleus” and one can notice this immediately when putting on the record. The first song “Future Doom” starts as usual with Fear Factory styled industrial sounds that are crushed to dust by grooving and crushing black metal riffs and vocals that could be the ‘Beast’ himself.

Sorg has definitely improved his vocals. Still he reminds me a lot of Dimmu Borgir’s Shagrath with screeching screams and guttural grunts. Well, it must be the band’s style which is still highly influenced by Norway’s biggest melodic black metal band, a highly noticeable factor in Tidfall. The song structures are also really diverse: from a slow part, to a grooving part, to absolute mayhem, making this release even more interesting.

But what separates Tidfall from the rest is their usage of samples that I have yet to hear in other bands of the same style. Funny enough, with this influence, they come dangerously close to Fear Factory, yet Tidfall sounds far darker and gloomier than the late industrial metal kings. Somehow, it just all fits extremely well together, which makes Tidfall’s new release even better than “The Instinct Gate”. And with the right moves, this band could take over the throne of melodic black metal. If Dimmu Borgir calls it quits, these guys could take over in no time…no time at all!