Band:	Datura
Album:	The Darkest Hours
Style:	Brutal death metal
Release date:	2006
A review by:	Herzebeth

01. Fearless
02. From Icons To Flesh
03. Chapter's End
04. Wargods
05. Contemplate The Depth
06. Dead Works
07. Believer's Ruin
08. Desevolution
09. The Darkest Hours...

I hope you pay good attention to this review because if you don't, you won't acquire this album and you'll dismiss one of the greatest pieces circulating the metal scene nowadays. Datura is a fairly new act from France, "The Darkest Hours" is their debut album and damn it's an impressive way to illustrate themselves to the world, this is in fact one of the most shocking debut albums I've ever heard in my entire life.

The minute I held this album in my dirty hands I knew I was going to experience total majesty, the artwork is truly mysterious and amazing indeed, the layout presents the members of Datura in a really sick(photoshoped) way. Finally the music starts, it's amazing how these French guys managed to merge various genres to finally add a brutal edge to the mix; the first track shows an intricate side of Technical Death Metal, you'll hear complex and long guitar solos, a lot of irregular beats and overwhelming structures, then as the album develops the music begins to change slowly but effectively, soon you'll find yourself drowned in progressive elements with "Contemplate the Depth", then you won't be able to recover from the brutal assault in "Desevolution", finally you'll feel numb after hearing the magnificent convolution of "The Darkest Hours" and so on?

Datura shows extremely good music as a whole, their songwriting is marvelous and their general scheme is astonishing. This CD was written for the most eager ears out there, for all those who said Death Metal is no longer original or complicated, this band came to demonstrate you're all wrong, this band is fresh and multi-faceted, their music comes in several layers and the whole concept will accelerate your heart-beats instantly, even the lyrical content is far-fetched, finally a new band who broke the "gore, blood and Satan" cliché, and I do know bands like Circle Of Dead Children and Cephalic carnage

This is an album you MUST hear, it will literally make you feel smarter and better about yourself believe me, once you push play on your stereo you won't be able to stop, I received this album a couple of weeks ago and it hasn't left my player ever since, every single track finds a way to keep you interested to the very end, and when you finally make it you'll hear one of the best closures an album can offer. So this is what I thought of this album, I highly recommend it to everyone into good music, I'll be waiting for their next release, I really want to see them surpassing "The Darkest Hours" I'll even leave half a point for them to achieve the 10 next time.

The most promising band this year.

Best Tracks: the whole album is amazing believe me.