ReView: La Magra – In the Dead of Night0

La Magra
Album: In the Dead of Night
Category: Electronic / Gothic / Industrial
Label: Equinoxe Records
Release Date: 2022-01-14

In the Dead of Night is in many respects an impressive album. Its blend of electro, club-friendly beats, and bits of more industrial menace scratch many genre-itches. Bits of White Zombie and Skinny Puppy bleed through in numbers like “Forest of the Damned” and “Sie,” whereas songs like “Haus Am See” and “Der Vampyr” offer 3TEETH meets V▲LH▲LL vibes.

Overall, the amalgam of goth/rock textures, electro/industrial beats, and horror tropes on In the Dead of Night is well executed; the Castlevania-infused choral keys lend an extra danceability to the more aggressive timbre of the driving guitar melodies and the accompanying, characteristically filtered industrial vocals. The album’s varied flow of energy reflects a due consideration of dynamics as its more rock/metal moments give way to tripped out, ethereal synth sequences, each flavor giving room for the other to breathe better for it.

With La Magra being an act with a fair bit of history behind it, it’s not surprising to find a certain attention to detail. However, the sheer volume of music comprising In the Dead of Night seems, in many ways, a lost opportunity; a slightly more succinct LP would afford a more addictive, more digestible portion of industrial/goth beats. Full kudos for the work put in, but at the end of the day, night need not fall six times in the span of one album. Still, a laudable effort with plenty of hooks for fans of all things industrial or goth.
 
Track list:
Disc 1

1. Prelude – Nightfall 1
2. Forest of the Damned
3. Sie
4. Nightfall 2
5. Dark Shadows
6. Nightfall 3
7. Der Wanderer
8. Armee Der Schatten
9. The Hunter
10. Nightfall 4
11. The Ritual
12. Nightfall 5
13. Knochenball
14. Haus Am See
15. Nightfall 6
16. Der Vampyr
17. Non Morte

 
Disc 2

1. Kein Gott [Ro Issue Mix]
2. Atheist [Infidelis Version]
3. Flieh Mit Mir [Male Version]
4. Mistress of the Night [May-Fly RMX]
5. Guardian Angel feat. Martha (Distorted Reality)
6. Broken Inside [Broken Again Mix]
7. Ich Will Zu Dir [Tombstone Version]
8. Sweet Jesus [Church Mix]
9. Infect Me [Club Mix]
10. Vampyre Romance [Eternity Mix]
11. Alone in Darkness [Forever in Loneliness Mix]
12. Candlemas Eve (Rare Track)
13. Angels Descending [Nephilim RMX]
14. Auf Ewig
15. Flieh Mit Mir (A Memorial to Conny)

 
La Magra
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Equinoxe Records
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Colin Andrew MacDougall (VexationsandtheVile)