Nocturna - Daughters of the Night

Alright, who had a little bit of gothic metal on their bingo card for this fine Friday? I like your style if you did, though quite what the caller would shout out by way of announcing it is another question entirely. Probably something to do with crows or the eternal night rather than ducks or… wait, the number 18 is “Vampire’s Dream”? Huh, looks like I didn’t give the goth/bingo crossover scene quite enough credit there.

On the venerable topic of gothic profit, we have Nocturna. While they only recently hit the scene with their 2022 debut Daughters of the Night they have certainly hit the ground running, which is all the more difficult to do in a pair of stompers. Fronted by co-founders Grace Darkling and Rehn Stillnight, the band employ an interesting mix of operatic highs and fast-paced lows to combine the gothic elements with a real symphonic metal drive. While opera singing and symphonic metal are hardly strange bedfellows – they literally can’t stop booty calling each other – Nocturna splits the bill fairly evenly between the two, meaning that Daughters of the Night can be soft piano ballads one minute and kicking your front door down the next.

Our pick for the Rock Song of the Week this time out is a heady blend of the two approaches; title track “Daughters of the Night” makes a grand entrance and keeps the masquerade party going. If you’re a big fan of euro-metal fun, then this is your Friday all wrapped up. If you’re a big fan of gothic-looking ladies swishing about in front of a castle as well, then the video is also going to be right up your street. And, let’s be honest, I could probably count on one hand the amount of people here who haven’t had at least a cursory interest in that at one point.