Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 04:39 AM by Lilliana Tseka
Genre: Heavy, Doom, Celtic/Folk Metal
Country: Ireland
Label: Cruz Del Sur Music
Year: 2014
I have a vivid remembrance of the band’s first and only appearance in Greek soil, that of 2009’s Up The Hammers Festival. The only ‘luggage’ they were carrying back then was a very good EP and and the ‘hunger’ of a young metal band wanting to gather experience and have a good time playing the music they love in front of an audience who understood them. The years have passed and after a very promising first record (The Last Caress of Light) that was a natural progression from their early stuff and a lot more wisdom gained from experiences (bad and good), they present to us their second full length album, ‘Severance’.
This record signifies a new period for Darkest Era. The music crafted by the Irish in this album shows the evolution of the band as songwriters. The obvious influences are of course present (Thin Lizzy, Primordial) but the band brings out a more personal sound with this one. ‘Severance’ is covered by a heavy shade of melancholy, the songs fill the listener with strong emotions. An amalgam of doom/epic metal with black and folk pieces strategically put in the album. The lyrical theme in most of the songs in the album makes it even heavier, the philosophical concept of Solipsism is a subject of great debate. The band’s performance is outstanding, in the rhythm section Daniel O’Tool on bass and Lisa Howe on drums play perfectly both in the slow and the black and thrash parts, but the highlights of the album is the magnificent work of Ade Mulgrew and Sarah Wieghell on guitars and Dwayne Maguire (aka Krum) on vocals.
Put on the record on and ‘feel’ with ‘Sorrow’s Boundless Realm’, ‘Songs of Gods and Men’ and ‘The Serpent and the Shadow’. You can feel the passion, the massive energy, the band’s pride of their work. The choruses are ‘bleeding’, the amount of emotion is extraordinary. ‘Beyond the Grey Veil’ follows in a more slow paced/ballad way, but again bringing chills with its atmosphere. Speeding up in ‘Trapped in the Hourglass’, ‘The Scavenger’, ‘A Thousand Screaming Souls’ and closing with the longest song of the album, the 8 minute ‘Blood, Sand and Stone’ which is together with the first four the best songs in the album.
Simply one of the best releases of 2014, Darkest Era has given us an honest, proud, 100% Irish metal monster! Passionate music from the heart. Heavy metal the Irish way!
5/6
