Midnight: “Hellish Expectations” Full-Length Out Today on Metal Blade Records
– March 8th, 2024 –
“Expect Total Hell” Visualizer Now Playing
Photo by Hannah Verbeuren
Preview/purchase MIDNIGHT’s Hellish Expectations HERE
Hellish Expectations, the newest offering from Cleveland’s favorite filth metal alchemists, MIDNIGHT, is out today on Metal Blade Records!
Dirty, hostile, and alluringly obnoxious, MIDNIGHT makes music to start fights to. One-man-army, Athenar, has been churning out an ungodly racket, dropping countless demos, splits, and EPs and ultimately slaying the metal/punk underground with his own addictive brand of lust, grime, and sleaze for over two decades. And in 2024 he’s with the band’s sixth full-length, the blackened heavy metal rumblings of Hellish Expectations.
“It’s a knuckle-dragger with a fat cutoff,” notes Athenar, “Probably the most concise and straight to the point MIDNIGHT album to date, and all written in a weekend.”
“From start to finish, this album is a banger,” hails MetalSucks. “There are no songs to be skipped, and the sleaziness of the vocals and lyrics is, as always, a huge seller of the album as well. Even the video [“F.O.A.L.”] has parental controls on it, so that should give you an idea of the sleaze levels we’re dealing with.” Last Rites concurs, “If you know MIDNIGHT, you know what this record sounds like, but Hellish Expectations pushes the lust, the filth, the sleaze, and the metal farther into the red. It’s angrier, more energetic, more direct… It’s fun as hell, fast as hell, loud as hell, silly as hell, irreverent as hell, and all of those are the hellish expectations one should have when approaching it, and all the reasons you should love every second of it.” Rock Hard Germany writes, “MIDNIGHT remains unattainable and unmistakable – Athenar has proven this once again with this masterpiece, MIDNIGHT’s best album since Satanic Royalty.” New Noise hails, “No love songs, no ballads, just speed, mayhem, and lots of volume. It’s attitude-driven, walking that fine line between good, old-fashioned punk rock and a headbanging nod to classic Venom – Anything less and it wouldn’t be MIDNIGHT…Hellish Expectations is Athenar going for broke and laying it all on the line for his fans, for better or worse, and the good news is, he nailed it.” Adds The Headbanging Moose, “…raise your horns nonstop in the name of sheer blasphemy to the sound of this precious gem of the underground.“
Watch a visualizer for the opening track, “Expect Total Hell,” at THIS LOCATION.
Watch MIDNIGHT‘s previously released video for “F.O.A.L.” at THIS LOCATION.
Hellish Expectations is available on CD and digital formats as well as vinyl in the following color variants:
Sangria (US)
Metallic Marble (US)
180g Black (EU)
Crimson Red w/ Black Smoke (EU)
Orange/Red Splatter (EU)
Find ordering options at: metalblade.com/midnight
MIDNIGHT Live:
3/16/2024 Fiesta Destructo 2024 @ Hotel Vegas – Austin, TX
3/21/2024 Hell’s Heroes – Houston, TX
European Tour 2024 w/ Cyclone, High Command:
4/04/2024 Turock – Essen, DE
4/05/2024 Kulturpalast – Hamburg, DE
4/06/2024 Pumpehuset – Copenhagen, DK
4/07/2024 Roxy – Flensburg, DE
4/08/2024 2Progi – Poznań, PL
4/09/2024 Kamienna12 – Kraków, PL
4/11/2024 Goldgrube – Kassel, DE
4/12/2024 Bastard Club – Osnabrück, DE
4/13/2024 Welcome To Hell – Eindhoven, NL
4/14/2024 De Kreun – Kortrijk, BE
4/16/2024 Rebellion – Manchester, UK
4/17/2024 Anarchy Brew Co – Newcastle, UK
4/18/2024 New Cross Inn – London, UK
4/19/2024 Petit Bain – Paris, FR
4/20/2024 No Playback Festival – Remchingen, DE
4/21/2024 Schlachthaus – Dornbirn, AT
4/23/2024 Gaswerk – Winterthur, CH
4/24/2024 Backstage – Munich, DE
4/25/2024 Viper Room – Vienna, AT
4/26/2024 Underdogs – Prague, CZ
4/27/2024 Lido – Berlin, DE
4/28/2024 Chemiefabrik – Dresden, DE
4/30/2024 Temple – Athens, GR * MIDNIGHT only
5/01/2024 Eightball Club – Thesseloniki, GR * MIDNIGHT only
5/22/2024 Maryland Deathfest Pre-Fest – Baltimore, MD * MIDNIGHT only
MIDNIGHT:
Athenar – everything
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