Band:	Dark The Suns
Album:	All Ends In Silence
Style:	Gothic metal
Release date:	March 11, 2009
Guest review by:	Milena

01. Unbroken Silence
02. Everlasting
03. The Dead End
04. All Ends In Silence
05. Sleepless Angels
06. Cold Dawn
07. Rimed With Frost
08. The Rain
09. Guardians
10. Gone

Metal Storm tags Dark The Suns as gothic metal, but on the first album they've reminded me more of Suomi metal, not just because they're Finnish, but because of sounding a lot like For My Pain with the addition of harsh vocals. And not just any harsh vocals - they follow the principle of Insomnium, where some whispers are followed by growls and vice versa. Their debut, In Darkness Comes Beauty, has a lot of soft leading piano lines, is pretty upbeat, not very original or spectacular but gives a nice experience for fans of the genre.

We're introduced to the second one, All Ends In Silence, with a different track - the leading melody is played by guitar instead of the keys, there are no whispers, and the whole experience doesn't sound so similar to Suomi metal bands anymore. But that's just the opening song, the rest sounds pretty similar to the first album once again, although with a bit less uniformity.

The package is excellent, beautiful cover and art, and a very nice production, nothing too flashy but very soft, gentle and fitting to the sound. The performance of the band members is tight. Those piano lines I've talked about sound very precise, the lead guitarist seems a bit shy, but delivers solos on approximately half of the tracks - very simplistic but with a pretty guitar tone. The vocalist uses the technique which I like the least, but that didn't bother me very much, though there is a lot of room for improvement - he could try to sound a bit more ferocious or not to sing with an accent. There are some awkward clean (female?) vocals, that sound like a mix between a ghost of a child which died in some disturbing way (kinda like Moaning Myrtle from "Harry Potter") and a tiny, helpless alien. They weren't really creepy or anything, I just didn't like them. The performance I liked best is the one of the drummer - there's not room for very original drumming in this type of music, but you can clearly see he just loves what he does, 'cause he always grabs my attention with upbeat drumming (which is as loud as it needs to be in the mix, so it complements the album).

Though it's refreshing to listen to a Suomi metal album from late 2000's which isn't simply plain and downright commercial, but something a bit more than that, and which doesn't suffer from lack of direction or ability to sound good, there is a LOT of room for improvement in songwriting. Lyrics are the main issue here, they're pretty much made of stereotypes, suffer from lack of bite, logic, and sometimes the grammar is a bit off by an (in)definite article or two, if you know what I mean. They're a bit better than on the first album, but still, I've found them to ruin my experience and I was much more comfortable listening to the album without knowing what the vocalist sings about. The songs pretty much follow the same structures and some of them are of very similar pace. But, then again, if you want diversity, originality and all those stuff that the average "elite" metalhead swears by, you should know better than to look for it in places like these. This is an album made for relaxation, maybe when you're in a nice scenery or you want a soundtrack for a wintery day with friends who aren't really into extreme metal.

All in all, this isn't a bad album, so no need to be afraid to try it out, especially if you're a fan of gothic and similar types of metal. The standout tracks would most likely be "Cold Dawn" and "Rimed With Frost," both containing some powerful and lovely melodies, so you should listen to them before you decide if this is for you or not.