DARK LORD – IT'S NIGH' TIME 12" Vinyl LP Album

- The Rare Italian Heavy Metal Album That Refused to Fade Away

Album Front Cover Photo of DARK LORD – It's Nigh' Time Visit: https://vinyl-records.nl/

Dark Lord's 1988 "It's Nigh' Time" is a small but stubborn landmark in late-80s Italian heavy metal: a Milan one-and-done LP that never needed radio love to become a fan-and-collector favorite (scarce on vinyl, naturally). The sound is lean and ominous, bright steel riffs over a tight, driving pulse, with choruses that flash like neon after midnight – more streetlight grit than arena gloss. "Welcome to the Nightmare" kicks the door in, the title track locks in the hook, and "Love Hurts" drags the mood into slow-burn menace without turning soft. Cover art by Joachim Luetke seals the vibe: classy, creepy, and built for 12-inch staring contests.

Table of Contents

"It's Nigh' Time" (1988) Album Description:

Dark Lord’s "It's Nigh' Time" lands like a streetlamp buzz at 2 a.m.: hard edges, a cold sheen, and zero patience for subtlety. The riffs are cut bright and clean, the rhythm section keeps it marching, and the choruses flash just long enough to stick before the next shove arrives. "Welcome to the Nightmare" opens with the kind of blunt confidence that doesn’t ask permission, the title track snaps into a hook fast, and "Love Hurts" slows the pulse without turning polite.

Italy, 1988: loud country, small rooms

Italy in the late ’80s wasn’t waiting around for anyone’s approval, and the metal underground behaved like it knew the mainstream wasn’t coming to pick it up. Bands traded tapes, played cramped stages, and aimed for that European “tight but hungry” sound because it travelled better than raw chaos. The result is a record that feels engineered to survive duplication, bad P.A. systems, and impatient listeners—meaning it gets to the point quickly and stays there.

Where this sits in the metal argument

Call it Italo heavy metal if you need a label, but it’s really a negotiation between classic metal backbone and late-’80s sharpness. Compared with Italian peers like Death SS, Bulldozer, Strana Officina, Vanadium, Skanners, and Sabotage, Dark Lord sound less obsessed with image and more interested in making the songs hit on the first pass. No choir loft drama, no endless detours—just riffs, turns, and choruses that show up on time.

  • More steel than smoke: the guitars stay bright and readable.
  • More street than stadium: punchy pacing, minimal ornament.
  • More hook than haze: choruses don’t hide behind “atmosphere.”
Sound and sweat: how it actually moves

The attack is immediate—tight rhythm guitar, drums that land clean, bass holding the middle like it’s annoyed at everyone else’s enthusiasm. Space is used like a weapon: short gaps, quick stops, then the band slams back in before you get comfortable. The tempos don’t sprint; they push, steady and insistent, the way late-’80s metal often did when it wanted to sound big without sounding bloated.

"Bring It Out at Night" has that forward-leaning drive where the band sounds like it’s pulling the song toward the chorus by force. "Fallin’ Off" plays with tension and release in a way that feels practical, not academic. Then "Love Hurts" stretches out and lets the mood thicken—still heavy, still controlled, just darker around the edges.

The people steering the record

Emanuell Jandee’s vocals keep the whole thing human—clear enough to carry melody, sharp enough to bite when the riffs get busy. Alex De Rosso’s guitar work does the heavy lifting: riffs that stay legible at volume, leads that colour the song instead of hijacking it. Paolo Muffato’s bass is the glue, and Sandro Bertoldini’s drumming gives the record its “we’re moving whether you like it or not” posture.

A useful little reality-check sits right on the label: most of Side 1’s writing credits lean on Bertoldini and Muffato, with “N. Ford” appearing across multiple tracks, while "Better Give It" is credited without that extra name. It reads like a working band with a practical songwriting core—less mystique, more “finish the song, then play it like you mean it.”

Two videos, one mood

The page puts a spotlight on two cuts for a reason: "Welcome To The Nightmare" and "Love Hurts" both got video treatment, and that pairing tells you what the band thought the record was selling. One track kicks the door in, the other lingers with a slow-burn menace, and together they sketch the album’s range without pretending it’s anything other than late-’80s metal built for impact.

No scandal, just the usual misreadings

Real controversy doesn’t cling to this release—no court cases, no bans, no heroic myths, sorry. The more common mistake is assuming the ominous name and stone-heavy sleeve promise doom or theatrical excess; the music is tighter, cleaner, and more song-first than that. Another predictable confusion: “Dark Lord” is the kind of band name the world refuses to leave unused, so context matters unless you enjoy chasing the wrong rabbit down the wrong hole.

Late-night radio memory: this is the sort of record that would sound strangely crisp through static, right when the DJ stops talking like a friendly uncle and starts sounding like someone with a deadline.

References

This album doesn’t beg for attention; it just keeps playing like it expects you to keep up.

Album Key Details: Genre, Label, Format & Release Info

Music Genre:

Italo Heavy Metal

Italian heavy metal with a late-80s European bite: melodic leads, punchy riffing, and that clean-but-steely production that sits between classic heavy metal and the shinier edge of the era. Built for vinyl-era volume knobs and cassette rewinds.

Label & Catalognr:

Zyx Metallic – Cat#: JOWA 38802

Album Packaging

Standard sleeve.

Media Format:

Record Format: 12" Vinyl, Stereo, Gramophone Record
Total Weight: 230g

Release Details:

Release Date: 1988

Release Country: Made in Germany

Production & Recording Information:

Album Cover Design & Artwork:
  • Joachim Luetke – Album cover artwork

    I love cover artists who make a 12-inch square feel like a whole horror film.

    Joachim Luetke is a German cross-media artist (born 1957) who makes album art feel like a miniature movie poster. I like that he actually trained in the late 1970s - graphic design in Switzerland, then Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts under Rudolf Hausner - so the craft is real, not just screen-glow. His work is often compared to H. R. Giger . In metal, his longest run is with Dimmu Borgir (2003-2010: "Death Cult Armageddon", "In Sorte Diaboli", "Abrahadabra"); he also rebooted Kreator's look (2005-2009: "Enemy of God", "Hordes of Chaos"), and stamped Arch Enemy's "Doomsday Machine" (2005) and Meshuggah's "obZen" (2008). He even published "Posthuman" (2000), which tells you he thinks beyond the sleeve.

    Joachim Luetke Wiki

Band Members and Musicians on: DARK LORD – It's Nigh' Time

  • Emanuell Jandee – Vocals

    A sharp, era-perfect heavy-metal voice that keeps the hooks dangerous instead of pretty.

    Emanuell Jandee, the singer fronting this record, gives "It's Nigh' Time" its human edge: the lift in the choruses, the bite in the verses, and the kind of phrasing that makes late-80s metal feel street-lit rather than studio-lit. Vocals here aren’t background decoration; they steer the album’s mood from tense to triumphant, keeping the melodies clear while still sounding like they belong in a smoky club and not a polite choir loft.

  • Alex De Rosso – Guitar

    A guitarist with that classic metal instinct: riffs first, flash second, and both delivered clean.

    Alex De Rosso, Italian guitarist with a long rock-metal career, handles the guitars on "It's Nigh' Time" with a disciplined sense of structure: driving rhythm work that keeps the songs moving, and lead playing that adds colour without derailing the track. The album’s punchy, late-80s feel leans heavily on his tight picking and clear tone—enough bite to sound heavy, enough definition to make the riffs readable at volume. Later work outside Dark Lord doesn’t matter here; on this album, the guitars are the engine.

    Alex De Rosso Wiki
  • Paolo Muffato – Bass

    The low-end glue that makes the riffs feel bigger than the room they were recorded in.

    Paolo Muffato, bassist in the band’s late-80s line-up, supplies the weight and direction underneath "It's Nigh' Time". Bass here isn’t a timid shadow of the guitars; it’s the foundation that keeps the grooves steady and the heavier moments properly grounded, especially when the arrangements open up and the guitar lines start to climb. The result is that satisfying “album feels solid” sensation—songs lock together, choruses hit harder, and the record carries its own momentum instead of wobbling on treble alone.

  • Sandro Bertoldini – Drums

    A drummer who drives the record like it’s a deadline: firm tempo, clean hits, zero excuses.

    Sandro Bertoldini, the kit man on "It's Nigh' Time", provides the muscle that turns these songs from riffs into actual tracks. The drumming keeps the record moving with steady pulse and decisive accents—exactly what heavy metal needs when the guitars are busy and the vocals are pushing melody on top. Tight rhythm work like this is the quiet architect of the album’s feel: transitions land, choruses arrive with impact, and the whole thing sounds like a band playing together rather than parts stacked in isolation.

Complete Track-listing:

Tracklisting Side A:
  1. Better Give It (03:42)
  2. Welcome to the Nightmare (03:19)
  3. Bring It Out at Night (04:50)
  4. Fallin' Off (04:24)
  5. It's Nigh' Time (03:20)
Video: Dark Lord - Welcome To The Nightmare (1988)
Tracklisting Side B:
  1. One Night in the City (05:00)
  2. Rockin' to Feel Alright (04:16)
  3. Running For Your Love (04:16)
  4. Love Hurts (05:08)
  5. Hot Tides (03:16)
Video: Dark Lord- Love Hurts

Disclaimer: Track durations shown are approximate and may vary slightly between different country editions or reissues. Variations can result from alternate masterings, pressing plant differences, or regional production adjustments.

Album Front Cover Photo
Front cover of Dark Lord – It’s Nigh’ Time 12-inch vinyl LP showing a large stone-textured pyramid dominating the sleeve, rendered in muted sand and ochre tones with visible print grain, slight surface wear near the edges, and band name and album title set in black Gothic-style lettering across the upper corners; standard non-laminated sleeve with age-related handling marks typical of late-1980s European metal pressings.

The sleeve is already half out of the jacket before the image really settles, and the first thing that hits is how much brown there is, not a fashionable brown but that dry, late-80s print-shop brown that always seems to fade unevenly. The pyramid fills the space without asking permission, its surface rough and blotchy, the ink sitting heavy in some areas and washed thin in others, like the printer lost patience halfway through the run. Fingers catch faint scuffing along the top edge where it’s been slid in and out too many times, and there’s a shallow pressure mark dead center that only shows when the light hits it wrong.

The typography behaves like it’s been placed last, almost as an afterthought. “Dark Lord” leans in from the left at a slight angle, blackletter strokes thick enough to bleed a little into the paper grain, while “It’s Nigh’ Time” answers from the right, spaced just far enough to make the top feel unbalanced if you stare too long. That imbalance feels deliberate, or at least useful, even if it also feels mildly irritating. No lamination here, just raw cardboard doing what raw cardboard always does after decades: softening at the corners, picking up tiny nicks that never show in scans.

The lower half of the image darkens abruptly, the stone texture cracking into something closer to dried earth, and that transition always looks harsher in real life than in photos. Shelf wear has polished the bottom edge slightly, giving it a faint sheen that clashes with the matte print above. It’s the kind of sleeve that never looks pristine, even when it probably once was, and that honesty suits the record better than any glossy finish ever could.

Photographed directly from the original vinyl LP sleeve in my collection. Colour shifts and surface imperfections reflect age, handling, and the limitations of late-1980s printing rather than digital reproduction errors.

Album Back Cover Photo
Back cover of Dark Lord – It’s Nigh’ Time 12-inch vinyl LP showing tracklist text on the left, Zyx Metallic and Bernhard Mikulski distribution boxes at the lower left, RWJC logo with catalog number JOWA 38802 at the upper right, and the continuation of the pyramid artwork on matte cardboard with visible aging, discoloration, and shelf wear consistent with late-1980s European pressings.

The back cover always feels busier in the hands than it ever looks on screen, and that’s mostly because the text pulls your eye in three directions at once. The tracklist sits flush left in a slightly timid serif font, printed just dark enough to read but light enough that it threatens to sink into the mottled background. Some letters have softened over time, the ink clearly absorbed unevenly into the cardboard, and the longer you stare the more you notice how the spacing wobbles from line to line. Nothing here was obsessed over.

Below that, the Zyx Metallic and Bernhard Mikulski distribution boxes take up more real estate than the band probably wanted, framed hard and square like paperwork stamped onto stone. The contrast is almost comical: bureaucratic rectangles pressed against a cracked, ancient-looking surface. A faint ring mark runs near the lower edge, the kind you only see after decades of shelf pressure, while the corners show that familiar dull rounding that comes from being pulled tight against other records too often.

The pyramid artwork continues upward, narrower and more compressed, with cracks in the print that look less like design and more like fatigue. On the top right, the RWJC logo and catalog number JOWA 38802 hover in their own neat box, slightly misaligned if you tilt the sleeve, which always bugs me more than it should. It’s a back cover that tells you exactly where the money went and where it didn’t, and that honesty feels very late eighties.

Photographed directly from the original vinyl LP sleeve in my collection. Surface wear, discoloration, and print inconsistencies reflect age and handling rather than later damage.

Close up of Side 1 record’s label
Close up of Side One record label for Dark Lord – It’s Nigh’ Time, showing a dark blue RWC label with silver-white text, LC 7716 and GEMA rights boxes, catalogue number JOWA 38802, Stereo 33 T, and the Side 1 track listing printed below the spindle hole

The label sits quietly against the black vinyl, a deep, muted blue that only really shows itself when the light catches it at an angle. The surface is matte, not glossy, and faint paper fibers are visible beneath the ink, a reminder this was never meant to be precious. Around the spindle hole, the cardboard has softened slightly from repeated play, creating a pale halo that collectors recognize immediately. The silver-white text has held up better than expected, though a few letters thin out where the ink met resistance. Track titles are stacked neatly below center, readable without fuss, while the outer edge shows light scuffing from careless cueing rather than abuse.

At the top center sits the RWC logo: an oval containing the letters R W C topped by a small crown. The crown is simple, almost cartoonish, and functions less as decoration than as a quiet claim of ownership and authority, marking the imprint rather than the music. It’s the kind of logo that existed to reassure distributors and pressing plants, not fans. The band name is printed large and confident beneath it, centered and unadorned, doing its job without theatrics.

On the left, the boxed LC 7716 and GEMA marks announce German rights administration, printed clearly enough to satisfy accountants but never meant to catch the eye. To the right, Vertrieb Zyx metallic, JOWA 38802, Stereo 33 T, and Side 1 line up in clean, functional order, the typography giving priority to logistics over flair. At the bottom, the © + ℗ 1988 line anchors everything in time, quietly stating when this object entered the world and never letting you forget it.

RWC / Zyx Metallic, Germany Label

This Side 1 label represents the German Zyx Metallic pressing of Dark Lord’s “It’s Nigh’ Time,” issued in 1988 and manufactured for European distribution. The design favors clarity and compliance over style, reflecting a late-1980s independent metal operation focused on efficient pressing and export rather than branding theatrics. This particular label design was used by Zyx Metallic in the mid-to-late 1980s.

Colours
Dark matte blue background with silver-white text
Design & Layout
Centered band name, top-aligned logo, balanced left-right information blocks
Record company logo
RWC oval logo topped with a small crown, indicating the record company imprint and rights holder
Band/Performer logo
Plain uppercase band name, no stylized logo used on the label
Unique features
Clear German rights boxes, functional typography, no decorative imagery
Side designation
“Side 1” printed on the right-hand information block
Rights society
GEMA, with LC 7716 label code
Catalogue number
JOWA 38802
Rim text language
English and German
Track list layout
Centered below spindle hole, stacked lines with composer credits in parentheses
Rights info placement
Left-hand boxed area and bottom copyright line
Pressing info
Catalogue number and distributor printed on the right side
Background image
Solid color label, no background image or texture

All images on this site are photographed directly from the original vinyl LP covers and record labels in my collection. Earlier blank sleeves were not archived due to past storage limits, and Side Two labels are often omitted when they contain no collector-relevant details. Photo quality varies because the images were taken over several decades with different cameras. You may use these images for personal or non-commercial purposes if you include a link to this site; commercial use requires my permission. Text on covers and labels has been transcribed using a free online OCR service.