Picking up where 2022´s The Black Winter left us hungry for more and even pointing further back in time. To a darker time. A time when death metal ruled supreme, and the head that didn´t bang was in dire threat of being banged without any compassion whatsoever. Yet Darkened is not in any way just a backwards looking troupe of historians. They are explorers as well - diving into and expanding the future of death metal.
If there ever was a better way to describe a band´s sonic impression through a character from the well-known board game Warhammer; Defiler fits Darkened perfectly: Defilers are towering daemon engines that stomp across the battlefield on piston-driven legs. No foe is safe from a Defiler.
Darkened – Defilers of the light makes classic death metal relevant and exciting again. The catchiness of the hooks and the clinical precision of the riffs combined with the extreme heaviness is hard, if not impossible to sideline. Topping that with an extremely good mixing and mastering at the hands of Lawrence Mackrory, we might have a new death metal classic in our hands- or at least in our ears.
Tracklist:
01 – Waves of Desolation
02 – Defilers of the Light
03 - Those Who Dwell Below
04 – In Praise of Shadows
05 – Just Close Your Eyes
06 – Echoes of Solitude
07 – On We Slaughter
08 – Dead Inside
09 – Masses of Vain Observance
10 – As Apocalypse Dawns
11 – Final Sanctuary
