#Darkened Lord of Sickness and Bile
Band: Darkened
Title: Lord of Sickness and Bile
Labels: Edged Circle Productions
Release date: 21 July 2023
Country: Sweden / Canada
Format reviewed: High-quality Digital Recording
Do you know that band that despite being new, it seems like you’ve known them for many years? When you look at the logo and it reminds you of the 90s? That when you listen to the sound of that same band it makes you feel good and remind you of so many bands that left an impact on you? Do you? So this is for you…
Yeah, that’s the feeling I get listening to Darkened. Looking at the logo, the cover, and the sound of the band.
Obviously, you can’t deny the bands where the members of Darkened have been and are in and in which bands they played or play live? Set the sound of it? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. In this case, it helped a lot to define the sound of Darkened.
If you do a bit of research, you’ll understand what I’m saying, but I’ll leave you with some small samples here…
Internal Decay, A Canorous Quintet, This Ending, The Plague, Demisery, Divinity, Grave, Necrophobic, Entombed A.D., Dismember, In Aphelion Nifelheim, Dreadful Fate, In Aeternum, Nominon, Perracide, Nasum, etc.
Aren’t they enough?
Moving on…
With the clues mentioned above, for those who don’t know the band, I think you already understand why the band moves in such musical style…
And speaking of the music on this release, it’s just a sample of what this band does. Yes, I’m reviewing a 7″, and if you think it’s easy to talk about it because it only has two songs. Talk about one song and then another?
Well, it would be, easy, and not only, but it would also be “cliché” and predictable.
But I don’t have many options and at the same time, who reviews a 7″? How often do you see a review of a 7″, even if it’s underground? How many 7″ lovers are out there? How many bother to constantly get up from the couch to flip the 7″? Hmmm.
Well, I’m not going to argue that point, maybe I’m a masochist.
So let’s talk about the music.
On the A side of this 7″, we have a song called “Steal Kill Destroy”, a song that starts fast, with a riff that grabs a Death Metal lover right by the collar and makes him shake his head. A heavy and fast riff , with a gelic lead that could fit perfectly in a Black Metal band. Some riffs and some passages that sometimes reminded me of Edge Of Sanity. “Steal Kill Destroy” manages to be a fast and strong song but also manages to be a song with a lot of melody.
Something we’ve always been used to by many bands coming from Sweden and with their Death Metal, even when they were more traditional…
Through the middle of this song there is a lot of groove mixed with death metal, beware, they don’t and don’t play a jump jump style. Thank you a lot.
On the B side, the song “Archaic Wounds” starts in a more modest way and with a very heavy riff and a lot of melody. The sound distilled by these gentlemen is excellent proof of what has been done and what is still being done, with quality, within the world of Death Metal, in this case, within the melodic Death Metal style.
The roots cannot be denied, and I’m glad, quite honestly. The music on this B-side is much more melodic, with many leads, and some excellent solos, with very good bass lines (yes, I could hear the bass), the drums are a little more elaborate compared to the music on the A-side, a more powerful, more felt, more “perfect” voice that fits the music very well.
These last words are not to say that the song “Steal Kill Destroy” is a bad song, on the contrary, but in comparison to “Archaic Wounds”, I prefer the last one.
On a 7″ it’s easier to choose the best and the second best of the release. It’s true, we have to be honest, who doesn’t do it?
Final words… I liked 7″, I did. I really did. If the band is worth it, we have to support it whenever we can. If you are lovers of 7″ and Death Metal… Well… What are you waiting for? Despite being a 7″… Yes, I give it an 8.5/10 The Key Keeper 666
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8.5/10 To Greatness and Glory!
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