Midnight – Sakada (2005)

Unvinyl #16

When ‘Sakada’ came out in 2005, it was quite a surprise, as ex–Crimson Glory frontman Midnight (born John Patrick McDonald) had been out of the music business for almost a decade and a half. While his former bandmates regrouped with a different singer and released an album at the end of the ’90s, he kept an extremely low profile and, aside from a low-budget EP sold through his website, stayed away from music entirely. For years, he seemed to have literally vanished, and all sorts of rumors — including alleged problems with the law — spread like wildfire.

With Crimson Glory he had established himself as one of the most capable vocalists in late ’80s US metal, thanks to an impressive pair of pipes and a theatrical delivery — the band famously performed wearing masks — that perfectly matched their intricate songwriting and progressive leanings. His absence only strengthened the myth: a gifted singer disappearing into thin air at the height of his cult status.

I had the chance to interview him when this album was released and asked about those lost years. He didn’t mention any run-ins with the law, but he did share a long list of personal struggles: “I have two daughters, Ariel and Heaven, and I was with the mother of Ariel and I tried to make the family work. I wanted to be with my daughter: I thought that was most important because [as a musician] I was gone all year, and she would never know who her father was. I tried to work a regular job, be a father, and be a regular person. Then, after a very short time, I realized that’s not who I am, so it didn’t work. That made me really sad. After that, I went to California, to the mountains, and was by myself for a couple years. I spent a lot of time being around no one… I actually lived in a cave for a while in California and spent a lot of time meditating and praying”.

Such isolation left a strong mark on the music. “Through the meditation I came to realize what I was really… I tried to start to work on some new ideas for songs, and I came to the realization that I was really stuck in this operatic groove with my voice. I thought I needed to get rid of that, so I stopped singing, I stopped writing, and I tried to clear my mind and get back to my roots, back to a different kind of voice. For me, to be different, to be original, to be unique is the most important thing, and I wasn’t feeling like I was unique. So from there I went to Florida and I waited for the right time for this to happen”.

All this checks out with the sheer diversity of his first full-length solo outing, both musically and vocally. For convenience, you could label ‘Sakada’ as progressive, but only because of the wide range of influences soaking into it; it’s not what one would normally call prog metal — or even prog rock. This eclecticism is both its greatest strength and its main flaw.

For starters, it’s a complete departure from Crimson Glory’s classic metal style. Sure, a couple of heavier tracks are included for good measure — the opener ‘Incubus’ and the frantic ‘War’, with its breakneck coda — but that’s where the similarities end.

The rest of the record wanders through unexpected territories: hints of oriental flavors in ‘Berber Trails’; classic rock touches nodding to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd (‘Miss Katie’, with its mandolin-like sounds, instantly recalls ‘The Battle Of Evermore’, while ‘Pain’ mixes glam and a psych-infused outro). These experiments don’t always work. For instance, ‘Little Mary Sunshine’, with its unhinged vocal delivery, ends up forgettable, while the closing track, the cheeky ‘Cat Song’, plays like a country/southern rock reinterpretation of early ’70s Alice Cooper.

The album’s main highlight is the beautiful title track, an acoustic piece enriched by flute and dulcimer. It’s both a love song — about a relationship whose happy ending took a long time to materialize — and a metaphor for Midnight’s long disappearance. In our interview, he explained how the name came to him: “One day I did an interview with someone and they mentioned that I haven’t been around for 15 years, that I’ve been hiding underground. Later that night, on TV, someone said on the news: ‘the cicadas are back, they’ve been underground for 15 years and now they’re back’. And I was like: ‘What’s a cicada?’. I found out it’s an insect and that they hide underground. They don’t ever come out for 15 years and when they do, they make a very loud noise. Some people think it’s beautiful and some people think it’s obnoxious, and I thought: that’s perfect. So I just changed the spelling of the word… the letters didn’t look strong enough to me, so I spell it like you know now”.

All in all, the ups outweigh the downs. For every misstep or overreach, there are moments of genuine inspiration that make the album a fascinating portrait of an artist choosing to follow his instincts rather than bend to anyone’s expectations. It’s uneven, yes, but also fearless, and that’s a big quality, if you ask me.

‘Sakada’ remains Midnight’s final official release. A planned reunion with Crimson Glory fell apart. He began working on a new project titled ‘M2’, but aside from a few excerpts scattered across limited self-released CD-Rs, it remains largely unheard. Personal issues continued to shadow him: in 2007 he was arrested for DUI and, ultimately, in 2009 he passed away due to a stomach aneurysm. He was only 47.

Chances of vinylization: Basically none. Black Lotus, the Greek label that released it, went out of business in 2006. Furthermore, the record wasn’t particularly well received due to the big departure from the sound Midnight was known for. I’d say track down the cd if you’re interested. Out of print, of course, but plenty of cheap copies available.