Dark Angel - Darkness Descends - guest review
Dark Angel - Darkness Descends - guest review
Tracklist
01. Darkness Descends02. 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]
Guest review by
K✞ulu July 28, 2008
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 | July 28, 2008
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
10
10
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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. Read more ›› |
Comments
Comments:
21
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Posts: 52  |
Posts: 52
"Worst album"?? I think this this is their best album, and one of the best thrash albums aswell...period!!!
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 Posts: 40071 |
Posts: 40071 Written by Martin_metal on 21.05.2009 at 19:45 Same here. IMO this is Dark Ange's best album and one of the ten best thrash albums ever.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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 Posts: 4920 |
Posts: 4920
The drumming on the title track alone deserves way more than that 
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 Posts: 2574 |
Posts: 2574
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.
---- Savor what you feel and what you see Things that may not seem important now But may be tomorrow R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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 Posts: 10107 |
Posts: 10107 Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 21.05.2009 at 19:56 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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 Posts: 887 |
Posts: 887
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!
---- Freeze! Step away from the hubris.
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Posts: 6  |
Posts: 6 Written by Valentin B on 16.09.2009 at 13:14 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
---- Metal takes hold death starts to unfold It's loud like the worlds at an end Your in a blood fury the metal won't stop Onlookers they bang at command Cutting your palm and drinking your blood The power that few others dare You feed the need to go
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| Posts: 10107 |
Posts: 10107
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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 Posts: 376 |
Posts: 376 Written by Thrash on 21.04.2010 at 14:27 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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 Posts: 3493 |
Posts: 3493
Definitely. Although not quite the fastest (Wehrmacht is faster), it's still an awesome thrash album.
---- Licensed under the GPLv3. Relinquish proprietary software for a greater GNU/America.
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| Posts: 40071 |
Posts: 40071 Written by vezzy on 22.08.2010 at 13:18 but then again Wehrmacht is more crossover than pure thrash.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Posts: 3493 |
Posts: 3493 Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 22.08.2010 at 13:51 That's true, but I never felt the crossover elements were very strong.
---- Licensed under the GPLv3. Relinquish proprietary software for a greater GNU/America.
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| Posts: 40071 |
Posts: 40071 Written by vezzy on 22.08.2010 at 14:39 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 Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Posts: 3493 |
Posts: 3493 Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 22.08.2010 at 15:12 Biermacht is strong, in my mind, but not Shark Attack. Although I definitely agree with Cryptic Slaughter.
---- Licensed under the GPLv3. Relinquish proprietary software for a greater GNU/America.
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| Void_Eater
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Posts: 18 |
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 Posts: 3528 |
Posts: 3528
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.
---- - Headbanging with mostly clogged arteries to that stuff - Guib's List Of Essential Albums - Also Thrash Paradise Thrash Here
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Posts: 122  |
Posts: 122
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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 Posts: 1570 |
Posts: 1570
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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Posts: 4  |
Posts: 4
I like this kind of music for a long time, it is wonderful.
---- There is a lot of useful information https://writeanessayfor.me
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Posts: 64335 Written by Elio on 21.05.2009 at 20:04 IMO all 80's thrash albums has good, fast, intense and teqkniqal drumming.
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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