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
Side A:
Waves of Desolation / Defilers of the Light / Those Who Dwell Below / In Praise of Shadows / Just Close Your Eyes / Echoes of Solitude
Side B:
On We Slaughter / Dead Inside / Masses of Vain Observance / As Apocalypse Dawns / Final Sanctuary
