Band:	Faithful Darkness
Album:	Black Mirror's Reflection
Style:	Gothenburg metal
Release date:	September 29, 2012
Guest review by:	Boxcar Willy

01. Burning Bridges
02. Another Pain
03. Blessing Of Ignorance
04. When Emotions Fall Pt. 1
05. Stand As One
06. Remember This Fight
07. Destroy
08. Hate Injeciton
09. When Emotions Fall Pt. 2
10. A Cursed Redemption
11. Answer For Your Sins
12. Black Mirror's Reflection

Melodeath has never been a favourite genre of mine. There have, however, been a few bands that have definitely hit the nail on the head; Be'lakor, Amon Amarth and a few others. Faithful Darkness have put out their sophomore album Black Mirrors Reflection to prove to us that they deserve a spot among the "Gods" of melodeath.

Let's just say that won't be happening anytime soon.

Coming out of Sweden with good intent, this Gothenburg band really wants to be up there with the rest. They place fun, semi-technical riffs, have some angry Lamb Of God-esque growls and the general In Flames approach in terms of songwriting and melody.

All good, right?

Ehhh, not completely. While the band has the typical Gothenburg sound down, it just remains that: typical. The cool riffs soon turn into predictable, boring, and a chore to sit through. Combine that with some rather annoying clean vocals, and some, dare I say, cheesier than power metal keys, and you'll start to notice the rating dive faster than a Japanese kamikaze pilot.

The keys are just awful. I'm talking, a never ending video loop of Kidzbop 22. I may sound harsh, but after the first few seconds of their playing, all I could do was sit back and laugh. The clean vocals aren't bad by any means. They're not whiny or pitchy, in fact, I have to say I enjoy them. But it's when they are combined with the ultimate cheesiness of the keys and the over-produced riffs that they become unbearable.

This album isn't bad, but it certainly isn't good either. It feels as if it could be the soundtrack to some sub-par racing video game; that kind of game that only has three tracks, two cars and gets old within the first 3 races. I'm sure that hard-core Gothenburg fans will enjoy this, but as a whole, I recommend you let this slide under you radar.