MIDNIGHT: Hellish Expectations Earns #7 Spot On Billboard’s Current Hard Rock Albums Chart And More; European Headlining Tour Begins This Week + North American Summer Tour With Exciter Confirmed

Photo by Hannah Verbeuren

Preview/purchase MIDNIGHT’s Hellish Expectations HERE.

Hellish Expectations, the latest full-length from Cleveland’s favorite filth metal practitioners, MIDNIGHT, earned the #7 spot on Billboard’s Current Hard Rock Albums chart upon its first week of release! Elsewhere, the record took the #11 position on the Top New Artists chart, #30 on the Current Rock Albums chart, and more! See additional chart positions below.

USA:
#7 Current Hard Rock Albums
#11 Top New Artists
#30 Current Rock Albums
#31 Independent Label Current Albums
#92 Current Album Sales

Canada:
#17 Hard Music Albums
#59 Top Current Albums

Germany:
#77 Official Top 100 Albums

Dirty, hostile, and alluringly obnoxious, MIDNIGHT makes music to start fights to. One-man-army, Athenar, has been churning out an ungodly racket, dropping countless demos, splits, and EPs and ultimately slaying the metal/punk underground with his own addictive brand of lust, grime, and sleaze for over two decades. And in 2024 he’s with the band’s sixth full-length, the blackened heavy metal rumblings of Hellish Expectations.

Watch MIDNIGHT’s previously released video for “F.O.A.L.” at THIS LOCATION.

Hellish Expectations is available on CD and digital formats as well as vinyl in the following color variants:

Sangria (US)
Metallic Marble (US)
180g Black (EU)
Crimson Red w/ Black Smoke (EU)
Orange/Red Splatter (EU)

Find ordering options at: metalblade.com/midnight.

MIDNIGHT will kick off their European headlining tour this week with support from Cyclone and High Command followed by a short run of Latin American dates in June with Discharge and Havok. In July, the band will join Exciter on the sixteen-date Feel The Evil Like A Knife Tour. Support will be provided by Wraith and Hellwitch. See all confirmed dates below.

MIDNIGHT w/ Cyclone, High Command:
4/04/2024 Turock – Essen, DE
4/05/2024 Kulturpalast – Hamburg, DE
4/06/2024 Pumpehuset – Copenhagen, DK
4/07/2024 Roxy – Flensburg, DE
4/08/2024 2Progi – Poznań, PL
4/09/2024 Kamienna12 – Kraków, PL
4/11/2024 Goldgrube – Kassel, DE
4/12/2024 Bastard Club – Osnabrück, DE
4/13/2024 Welcome To Hell – Eindhoven, NL
4/14/2024 De Kreun – Kortrijk, BE
4/16/2024 Rebellion – Manchester, UK
4/17/2024 Anarchy Brew Co – Newcastle, UK
4/18/2024 New Cross Inn – London, UK
4/19/2024 Petit Bain – Paris, FR
4/20/2024 No Playback Festival – Remchingen, DE
4/21/2024 Schlachthaus – Dornbirn, AT
4/23/2024 Gaswerk – Winterthur, CH
4/24/2024 Backstage – Munich, DE
4/25/2024 Viper Room – Vienna, AT
4/26/2024 Underdogs – Prague, CZ
4/27/2024 Lido – Berlin, DE
4/28/2024 Chemiefabrik – Dresden, DE
4/30/2024 Temple – Athens, GR * MIDNIGHT only
5/01/2024 Eightball Club – Thesseloniki, GR * MIDNIGHT only
5/22/2024 Maryland Deathfest Pre-Fest – Baltimore, MD * MIDNIGHT only
w/ Discharge, Havok:
6/06/2024 Cafe Iguana – Monterrey, MX
6/07/2024 Foro Indepencia – Guadalajara, MX
6/08/2024 Circo Volador – Mexico City, MX
6/09/2024 Peppers club – San José, CR
6/11/2024 Calle 13 – Bogota, CO
6/13/2024 CC Festiva – Lima, PE
6/15/2024 Coliseo Theatre – Santiago, CL
6/18/2024 Groove – Buenos Aires, AR
6/20/2024 Carioca Club – São Paulo, BR
w/ Exciter, Wraith, Hellwitch:
7/18/2024 The Siren – Morro Bay, CA
7/19/2024 La Santa – Santa Ana, CA
7/20/2024 Brick By Brick – San Diego, CA
7/21/2024 Nile – Phoenix, AZ
7/22/2024 Launchpad – Albuquerque, NM
7/24/2024 White Oak Music Hall – Houston, TX
7/25/2024 The Rock Box – San Antonio, TX
7/26/2024 Come And Take It Live – Austin, TX
7/27/2024 Echo Lounge – Dallas, TX
7/29/2024 Turf Club – Minneapolis, MN
7/30/2024 Reggies – Chicago, IL
7/31/2024 Legends – Cincinnati, OH
8/01/2024 Meadows – Brooklyn, NY
8/02/2024 Middle East – Boston, MA
8/03/2024 Foufounes – Montreal, QC
8/04/2024 Lee’s Palace – Toronto, ON

“From start to finish, this album is a banger. There are no songs to be skipped, and the sleaziness of the vocals and lyrics is, as always, a huge seller of the album as well. Even the video [“F.O.A.D.”] has parental controls on it, so that should give you an idea of the sleaze levels we’re dealing with.” – MetalSucks

“…the steel marches on, and you can’t stop it.” – Metal Injection

“…Hellish Expectations pushes the lust, the filth, the sleaze, and the metal farther into the red. It’s angrier, more energetic, more direct… It’s fun as hell, fast as hell, loud as hell, silly as hell, irreverent as hell, and all of those are the hellish expectations one should have when approaching it, and all the reasons you should love every second of it.” – Last Rites

“MIDNIGHT remains unattainable and unmistakable – Athenar has proven this once again with this masterpiece, MIDNIGHT’s best album since Satanic Royalty.” — Rock Hard Germany

“…Athenar has hit blackened gold once again and proven that nobody is doing straight ahead speed metal delivered with a punk attitude and an essential raw nature quite as well as MIDNIGHT at the moment.” – Distorted Sound

“No love songs, no ballads, just speed, mayhem, and lots of volume. It’s attitude-driven, walking that fine line between good, old-fashioned punk rock and a headbanging nod to classic Venom – Anything less and it wouldn’t be MIDNIGHT…Hellish Expectations is Athenar going for broke and laying it all on the line for his fans, for better or worse, and the good news is, he nailed it.” — New Noise Magazine

“Athenar has decided to redline this motherfucker. The result is the project’s shortest and most immediate record to date—a rightfully stubborn refusal to downshift at any point… Combine that with excellent production, the beefiest guitar tone Althenar’s ever used, and his most rabid vocals ever, and you’ve got a helluva fun record.” – Invisible Oranges

“It shows raw unapologetic honesty in an approach that is belligerent, with a touch of sleaze.” – Ghost Cult