Night Cobra will release their second album, Beware the Dark Future, on 6 November through Nameless Graves Records, with Keepers Of The Cult out now as the first single.
Two changes behind it. The Houston band have moved off High Roller Records, which put out their 2022 debut, and the album was mixed by Mike Exeter, whose credits run to Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne. For a traditional metal band on an independent label, hiring that desk is a statement about ambition rather than about budget.
Frontman Christian Bakka Larson put the record itself bluntly: "As the world crumbles we give you an offering of apocalyptic heavy metal. This album is for those without hope and know that humanity has no future."
How it sounds: traditional metal played fast and dry, the riffs carrying the songs and the synth sitting under rather than over them. Larson also fronts Necrofier and created the Hell's Heroes festival, which is roughly the right coordinates.
Eight tracks across forty minutes and eleven seconds: Keepers Of The Cult, Cut By The Knife, Cry For Blood, Beware The Dark Future, Demons Of Fire, On The Edge, Cheating Death and Starlight. The recording line-up is Larson on vocals and synth, Brandon Barger and Bill Fool on guitars, Trevi Biles on bass and Dobber Beverly on drums, with Anthony Vallejo behind the kit live. James Rivera of Helstar guests on Cry For Blood and Starlight, and Calvin Cushman did the cover.