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Dark Angel - Darkness Descends review



Reviewer:
6.8

311 users:
8.4
Band: Dark Angel
Album: Darkness Descends
Release date: November 1986


01. Darkness Descends
02. The Burning Of Sodom
03. Hunger Of The Undead
04. Merciless Death
05. Death Is Certain (Life Is Not)
06. Black Prophecies
07. Perish In Flames
08. Merciless Death [live] [1998 re-release bonus]
09. Perish In Flames/Darkness Descends [live] [1998 re-release bonus]
Darkness Descends On Philadelphia - DFA Live At The Trocadero, October 23rd, 1988 [2008 reissue bonus]
10. The Burning Of Sodom [live]
11. Death Is Certain (Life Is Not) [live]
12. Merciless Death [live]
13. Perish In Flames [live]
14. Darkness Descends [live]
Darkness Descends On Reseda - DFA Live At The Country Club, April 22nd, 1989 [2008 reissue bonus]
15. We Have Arrived [live]
16. The Burning Of Sodom [live]
17. Death Is Certain (Life Is Not) [live]

1986 is considered a golden year for Thrash Metal releases: Master Of Puppets, Reign In Blood, Peace Sells... Dark Angel also released a CD that year called Darkness Descends. It is considered a classic by many, but I'm going to draw conclusions closer to the end.

A big change on this album is Gene Hoglan replacing Jack Schwartz on drums. As one may guess the drum work became more technical and insane, but Gene also turned out to be a great songwriter. So the lyrics written by him are impressive from the very first verse of the first song. A lot of them deal with questions of Christianity and denial of God. I can't say that I like them or share the author's opinion, but the imagery in the lyrics and word choice make me wonder if Gene Hoglan has a PhD in something. But alas this is all that is truly great about this album.

For me personally, Darkness Descends is a let down after We Have Arrived. The starting riff of Darkness Descends (both the song and the album) actually gives a lot of hope for the album to be good, but then the band makes it clear that the main philosophy behind their music is "playing faster." They even included a song from the previous album called "Merciless Death" and just played it faster and more aggressively. But music is more than just playing faster. The songs sound too similar as far as the riffs and "machine-gun" singing. Just two songs somewhat stand out: "The Burning Of Sodom" and "Black Prophecies." The former has a catchy chorus, a pretty cool solo series, and a melody change, but that's as far as it goes. So the only song that vindicates the musicianship of this album is "Black Prophecies." Only on this song do they keep the speed down a little, so at least you have an impression of listening to a different song. Moreover, the lyrics are just perfection: talking about Nostradamus and his predictions like the Great Fire of London, the rise of Napoleon and Hitler and Armageddon. In one verse, there is actually a direct quote from one of Nostradamus' works.

For this record to be successful, it would need songs like "Black Prophecies" and to have their intro-type riffs placed in the main parts of the songs merely for the diversity purpose. The funny thing is that most of the songs start with great vibes, but then turn into a homogeneous mass ("Perish In Flames" being another example besides "Darkness Descends"), and the drum work also takes it's toll here. With all due respect to Gene Hoglan, he sounds just too repetitive on most songs. On top of it the drums are a little too up-front, so production shortcomings from the previous album are heard on this one too.

As much as I don't want to make up such a conclusion, Darkness Descends proves to be Dark Angel's worst album.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 6
Originality: 6
Production: 7

Written by K✞ulu | 28.07.2008




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.

Guest review by
Maasai Mara
Rating:
10
October/November 1986 marks the greatest time in the history of thrash with the release of the unholy trinity of thrash. This, alongside Reign In Blood and Pleasure To Kill are the three best thrash albums to ever be produced. I will not waste my time talking about the other so-called great thrash albums from 1986. Darkness Descends is the best among the three, stands a mile above the others, and is the only album across all genres of heavy metal that I have come across that deserves to be rated 10. Only Demolition Hammer's Epidemic Of Violence matches this in the brutality aspect, but this blows it out of the water when it comes to riffs and solos.

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published 13.01.2019 | Comments (6)


Comments

Comments: 21   Visited by: 216 users
21.05.2009 - 19:45
Rating: 9
Martin_metal

"Worst album"?? I think this this is their best album, and one of the best thrash albums aswell...period!!!
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21.05.2009 - 19:56
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by Martin_metal on 21.05.2009 at 19:45

"Worst album"?? I think this this is their best album, and one of the best thrash albums aswell...period!!!


Same here. IMO this is Dark Ange's best album and one of the ten best thrash albums ever.
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21.05.2009 - 20:04
Elio
Red Nightmare
The drumming on the title track alone deserves way more than that
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22.05.2009 - 13:53
Rating: 7
K✞ulu
Seeker of Truth
Finally, people started to comment on how great this album is. I listened to it again yesterday, and while it seemed to me that I liked it a bit more than before, it's still not very versatile musically.
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16.09.2009 - 13:14
Valentin B
Iconoclast
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 21.05.2009 at 19:56

Written by Martin_metal on 21.05.2009 at 19:45

"Worst album"?? I think this this is their best album, and one of the best thrash albums aswell...period!!!


Same here. IMO this is Dark Ange's best album and one of the ten best thrash albums ever.

wow, we need to open a champagne i actually agree with you on a full sentence

pushing the envelope, playing faster and heavier and more screaming than everyone else, all the while still being coherent and having excellent riffs, this is pretty much one of the best thrash albums i've ever heard and the heaviest music i can actually stand.
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22.09.2009 - 19:45
BudDa

I also thought this album was faster, more technically gifted and my picks top thrash album eva!! I think your score was way too LOW!
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21.04.2010 - 14:27
Thrash

Written by Valentin B on 16.09.2009 at 13:14

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 21.05.2009 at 19:56

Written by Martin_metal on 21.05.2009 at 19:45

"Worst album"?? I think this this is their best album, and one of the best thrash albums aswell...period!!!


Same here. IMO this is Dark Ange's best album and one of the ten best thrash albums ever.

wow, we need to open a champagne i actually agree with you on a full sentence

pushing the envelope, playing faster and heavier and more screaming than everyone else, all the while still being coherent and having excellent riffs, this is pretty much one of the best thrash albums i've ever heard and the heaviest music i can actually stand.


I agree with you guys. This is one of the best metal album. This is the fastest and most brutal album of all time. Slayer are credited to be the most brutal and technical combination band but they suck in comparision to Dark angel. They sound really awesome even if the speed tears eardrums. I especially love songs Black Prophecies, Death is Certain , Darkness descends, Perish in Flames. OOps i've almost named all the songs of this album.Great band and great album
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Onlookers they bang at command
Cutting your palm and drinking your blood
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22.05.2010 - 12:52
Valentin B
Iconoclast
I love what some guy on the metal-archives reviews says about this album: "This album will kill you and if it doesn't your probably already dead".. i mean just listen to the first 30 seconds of Burning of Sodom.. holy FUCKING SHIT!!! this album gives a new meaning to the syntax "over the top"
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22.08.2010 - 08:19
Maxx666
Meshuggahian
Written by Thrash on 21.04.2010 at 14:27

Written by Valentin B on 16.09.2009 at 13:14

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 21.05.2009 at 19:56

Written by Martin_metal on 21.05.2009 at 19:45

"Worst album"?? I think this this is their best album, and one of the best thrash albums aswell...period!!!


Same here. IMO this is Dark Ange's best album and one of the ten best thrash albums ever.

wow, we need to open a champagne i actually agree with you on a full sentence

pushing the envelope, playing faster and heavier and more screaming than everyone else, all the while still being coherent and having excellent riffs, this is pretty much one of the best thrash albums i've ever heard and the heaviest music i can actually stand.


I agree with you guys. This is one of the best metal album. This is the fastest and most brutal album of all time. Slayer are credited to be the most brutal and technical combination band but they suck in comparision to Dark angel. They sound really awesome even if the speed tears eardrums. I especially love songs Black Prophecies, Death is Certain , Darkness descends, Perish in Flames. OOps i've almost named all the songs of this album.Great band and great album

Same here. This has got to be the best Dark Angel album and of course it deserve a a spot in the top 10 thrash albums....
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22.08.2010 - 13:18
Rating: 9
vezzy
Stallmanite
Definitely. Although not quite the fastest (Wehrmacht is faster), it's still an awesome thrash album.
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22.08.2010 - 13:51
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by vezzy on 22.08.2010 at 13:18

Definitely. Although not quite the fastest (Wehrmacht is faster), it's still an awesome thrash album.


but then again Wehrmacht is more crossover than pure thrash.
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22.08.2010 - 14:39
Rating: 9
vezzy
Stallmanite
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 22.08.2010 at 13:51
but then again Wehrmacht is more crossover than pure thrash.


That's true, but I never felt the crossover elements were very strong.
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22.08.2010 - 15:12
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by vezzy on 22.08.2010 at 14:39

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 22.08.2010 at 13:51
but then again Wehrmacht is more crossover than pure thrash.


That's true, but I never felt the crossover elements were very strong.


mmm I always felt them to be very strong same for cryptic slaughter. But m@ybe it is due to the fact I grew up with those albums at the time of release and not nowadays.
----
Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
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05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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22.08.2010 - 15:22
Rating: 9
vezzy
Stallmanite
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 22.08.2010 at 15:12
mmm I always felt them to be very strong same for cryptic slaughter. But m@ybe it is due to the fact I grew up with those albums at the time of release and not nowadays.


Biermacht is strong, in my mind, but not Shark Attack.
Although I definitely agree with Cryptic Slaughter.
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14.03.2011 - 02:32
Void_Eater
Account deleted
Uhh, are you listening to the right album...? This is a masterpiece, one of the best thrash albums ever, and the best out of the 1986 ubholy trinity of thrash, the other two being Reign in Blood and Pleasure to Kill. Sure its not horribly diverse, but the songd are distinquishable, and more importantly, its just an onslaught of classic thrash fucking metal riffs from begining to end.
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28.07.2011 - 18:35
Rating: 9
mohammedMG

6.8 is a very low rating for this magnificent album, i became a fan of the band when i only listened to the first track of this album
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03.10.2013 - 04:53
Rating: 9
Guib
Thrash Talker
Wow Ktulu went very hard on this one... personally I consider this album as being the best from Dark Angel, and honestly a 6.8 is almost being rude. To me this would go along the lines of 8, 8.5 but who am I to argue with Ktulu's opinions. Anyways I would just like to say to those who might be losing interest in this album because of the review to go and listen to this, if you like aggressive thrash, you'll love this album. Its pure fast paced aggression thrown to your face as if it was a canon ball. Trust me.
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Guib's List Of Essential Albums
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07.03.2014 - 20:26
Rating: 7
pkillerjp

This is their best album, really their only good album in my opinion. There's some aggressive drumming and this is their only album where they consistently deliver good to great riffs, and they come in at hyper speed. The only problem I hear is I still never liked either one of their vocalists, but Don is the better of the two, and this kills his weak performance on the debut album.
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11.02.2017 - 14:18
Rating: 8
qlacs
"The Quaker"
Haha as I read the review I knew what I'd find in the comment section... But I'm not with the opposition here. I got tired of speed-based music when I was 17. It was great for its novelty value, some of it still is, but I cannot take it for long when it doesn't have some real essence to it. It gets repetitive very quickly. Also, even though I think Don Doty made major improvement compared to his performance on We Have Arrived, he just sucks at writing lyrics, or at being rhythmic, or maybe both. He just gets out of the music's way to say too much for too long. Maybe it was indeed the band's overall idea to "be the fastest" but IMO they did sacrifice some musical value to be that. Just that.

I largely prefer Leave Scars to DD even if that has poorer production (a shame really), and Time Does Not Heal to about anything. You can compare a few records to Darkness Descends but nothing really compares to Time Does Not Heal...
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08.03.2019 - 00:56
Johnathan

I like this kind of music for a long time, it is wonderful.
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08.02.2024 - 11:08
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Written by Elio on 21.05.2009 at 20:04

The drumming on the title track alone deserves way more than that


IMO all 80's thrash albums has good, fast, intense and teqkniqal drumming.
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