Darkened - The Black Winter - CD

As presaged earlier this year by the quick-hitting Mourn the Dying Light EP, DARKENED arrive with their massive second album, The Black Winter. Immediately, their trademark sound is in place - clear & crushing riffs, grooves like a tank, an overall world-eating sensibility - but delve deeper and one will find DARKENED expanding their already-considerable powers. Most prominently, there's a surprising amount of atmosphere being explored on The Black Winter, true to its namesake. The resultant spaciousness is somehow just as suffocating as the band's now-characteristic density; whether it's in the riffing itself or the very subtle touches of synth underneath, the album certainly bears a unique-yet-unified aspect. From there, melancholic twists and wistful melody are seamlessly integrated into the DARKENED onslaught of sound, which alternately pushes the aggression to murderous levels and the doom to the darkest depths; put another way, everything here sounds HUGE. And credit for that must go to Linus Nirbrant, who handled The Black Winter's production, as well as mixing & mastering by the Dan Swanö at Unisound - truly, one will not find a clearer yet more crushing death metal record this year!