Band:	Stigma
Album:	When Midnight Strikes
Style:	Melodic deathcore
Website:	http://www.stigmahc.com
Release date:	May 2008
A review by:	Jeff

01. Walpurghis Night
02. I Am Dracula
03. Silver Bullets And Burning Crosses
04. To Be Really Dead? That Must Be Glorious
05. Flesh Ritual
06. Beneath The Crown Of Eternal Light
07. Blood, Your Precious Blood!
08. A Call For Vengeance
09. Walking The Fields Of Apocalypse
10. Sons Of Midnight
11. Epitaph Of Pain

The new album of the Italians members of Stigma is one new other releases of Powerful Death Metal mixed with hyper melodic choruses. All in all I could describe this album as the perfect crossover between Death, Metalcore and Gothenburg Death. This is melodic and a bit commercial on a side but also violent, and if it's not revolutionary, this is at least catchy. Definitely "When Midnight Strikes" is an album for the fans of melodic Death Metal.

The principal difference between a band like Stigma and In Flames is that Stigma is a lot more brutal. Both bands play melodic Death Metal but if In Flames is really easy of access band when Stigma in reason of its brutality is a lot less commercial. It doesn't mean that the songs of "When Midnight Strikes" are just noise, no really they're catchy and melodic but it's simply not just a new release of Gothenburg Death Metal, this is also Metalcore and pure Death. "When Midnight Strikes" is not the album of the century too, the songs are good in general but even if they're catchy none of them is a memorial hit a la "Episode 666" if you see what I mean? But really, it's well done and more than honest!

The production of "When Midnight Strikes" is well done and I like the cover and artwork of the CD. The guys are good musicians, the voice Vlad is still really good and I cannot say that Stigma is not a technical band. Their songs, despite their catchy and commercial melodies, are complex with a lot of interesting passages, all in all this is a really mature album which only lacks a bit of originality (though, in comparison of a ton of other releases, they mix a lot of influences and not only play In Flames' music?).

It's been a while that I didn't hear anything about this combo from Italy. I remember that I wrote the review of one of their demo "Metamorphosis", and it was really promising. With "When Midnight Strikes" the band confirms that they're still able to play good music, they didn't invent anything that's right but at least they know how to be good when it comes to plays such Metal. "When Midnight Strikes" is a really honest album and I recommend it to all the people who like to listen to melodic Death Metal.