The US debut of Austrain doomdeath band Darkside is in the form of "Melancholia of a Dying World". For a debut album this is very impressive indeed. The album opens in somewhat average fashion with two fairly run of the mill death metal songs, albeit still containing atmospheric moments. On track 3, "Prelude/Melancholia", Darkside display a very doomy side, complete with female vocals and brooding guitar melody. The addition of keyboards blends nicely in this music and lends strong support to the guitar solos present. It is in the slower, more atmospheric songs where Darkside really shine -- achieving the melancholic mood implied in the album title. The lead vocalist, Roach, performs his vocal chores in the form of a death growl, which is well suited to this style of music. Sprinkled throughout the album are female vocals and occassional black metal style vocals. The guitar playing is skillyfully accomplished, but the power of the guitars seems to have gotten lost in the mix as the drums and vocals have a drowning out effect in places. Darkside must be commended for doing their best to expand upon a somewhat stagnant death metal scene. After all, there are a lot of generic death bands (or old school, if you prefer) and there's only so much of this that I can stand to listen to. I look forward to more albums in the future from Darkside, as they have shown a lot of talent and what should be a bright future.
Darkside is:
Peter - Guitar / Lead Vocals
Roach - Drums / Percussion
Su - Keyboards / Backing Vocals
Peter - Bass Guitar
Back to Index