Night Laser are a heavy metal band from Germany formed in 2014 releasing four albums to date – ‘Fight For The Night’ (2014), ‘Laserhead’ (2017), ‘Power To Power’ (2020), and ‘Call Me What You Want’ (2024).
Founded by brothers Benno (vocals) and Robert Hankers (bass), Night Laser is an amalgam of glam and sleaze over a clearly defined heavy metal framework – the band line-up completed by Ingemar Oswald (drums), Vincent Hadeler (guitars) and Felipe Zapata Martinez (guitars). The new album features nine songs across forty six entertaining and engaging minutes, ‘Call Me What You Want’ emanating a rich metal and rock sound that was prevalent during the eighties heyday for hard rock and heavy metal evolution – Night Laser bringing that exact sound forward forty years, and adding a plethora of modern touches!
The album gets underway with the hard rocking thunderstorm ‘Bittersweet Dreams’, roaring off at pace after just twenty seconds! And then Night Laser drifts from metal to rock and back again as ‘Bittersweet Dreams’ changes gear, tempo and feel, taking in the scenery from a multitude of genres – genres such as rock, metal, glam and sleaze! An opening salvo to attract both metallers and rockers to the bands music, ‘Call Me What You Want’ strides on with the swaggering ‘Way To The Thrill’. Oozing a mighty mid-eighties Poison vibe, Night Laser are more like a metallized version of the American hard rockers, pounding the ground hard, shaking nearby buildings to their foundations! A barnstorming, and quite frankly bombastic brace to begin with, the album explodes with fiery pace and power – ‘No More Changes’ flying down the autobahn at top speed! Feet are definitely planted on the old-school heavy metal monitor here as ‘No More Changes’ sends the worldwide mosh pits into a head-banging frenzy.
A hard rocking heavy-hitting opening threesome, Night Laser keep the hammer down with the best song heard so far – ‘Don’t Call Me Hero’ perfectly melding hard rock and heavy metal with just a slight hint of AOR! Yes readers, you read that right, AOR! And the sing a long-able chorus is gonna be sung, shouted and screamed by every listener, fan and follower around the world – not to mention it’s gonna be a superb in-concert sing a long too! ‘Call Me What You Want’ has simply gotten better and better since it began, ‘Law Of The Vulture’ turning on its heels to storm off at a hundred fucking miles an hour – the band dropping a gear to adopt a more melodic, mid-tempo pace. And across its five and a half minute run time, ‘Law Of The Vulture’ changes gear and tempo a fair few times as it meanders all around rock and metal territory. There’s just no escaping the insatiable energy and oomph on show, a seventies-era Van Halen vibe pouring outta ‘Laser Train’, Night Laser hitting the ground hard to send a massive shockwave hurtling right round the fucking planet – a shockwave that’s gonna be felt in every “gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse” in the world!
And with a dramatic change in sound and feel of the album, ‘Travelers In Time’ slow burns into life to adopt a power ballad stance, Night Laser inviting everyone to raise lighters high and sway from side to side. The reined in energy here is palpable, the band doing a fantastic job of holding it all in – letting it all flow again for the anthemic thunderstomp that is ‘Captain Punishment’. The heavy hitting foot stomping attitude errs on the side of brutality, the band more in your face than at any other time on ‘Call Me What You Want’. And to bring the album to a close, Night Laser deliver the longest song on offer, ‘Fiddler On The Roof’ clocking in at over nine minutes in length! That’s nine minutes of wandering metal and rock, the band throwing everything in their locker at every listener – including the kitchen fucking sink! The variety of musical styles on offer across ‘Fiddler On The Roof’ is mind boggling, the band opening their music up to a very wide audience indeed!
Overall, energetic and fizzing with oomph, ‘Call Me What You Want’ is a bombastic barrage of infectious metal and rock.
TRACKLIST
Bittersweet Dreams
Way To The Thrill
No More Changes
Don’t Call Me Hero
Law Of The Vulture
Laser Train
Travelers In Time
Captain Punishment
Fiddler On The Roof
Night Laser: Facebook
Release Year: 2024
Label: Steamhammer / SPV
Category: Album
Country: Australia
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire and Metal-Roos.
