Band:	Darkane
Album:	Expanding Senses
Style:	Death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	August 26, 2002
Guest review by:	Darkside Momo

01. Innocence Gone
02. Solitary Confinement
03. Fatal Impact
04. Imaginary Entity
05. Violence From Within
06. The Fear Of One´s Self
07. Chaos Vs Order
08. Parasites Of The Unexplained
09. Submission
10. Growing Hate [Japanese bonus]

Umm? Another thrash-death band from Sweden ? I already hear you : 'yeah, what the fuck, another In Flames / Soilwork / (add your fav band here) clone'. And yes, Sweden seems the perfect ground for this style. But I'm sorry to disappoint you, Darkane is not 'just another band in the genre'.

For four reasons :

1) the songs are catchy as hell, with perfect violence, agressiveness and melody

2) Peter Wildoer's drumming is completely wild and mad, a lot of beats everywhere, outlining melodies, riffs, in a personal way that you'll find nowhere else. Drums are, somehow, the most important instrument in the music.

3) Andreas Sydow, the singer (screamer ?), has quite an unique voice. He was searching his ground on Darkane's previous album (Insanity), but now his vocals have matured and are completely in tune with the mad quality of the music.

4) With my peculiar tastes, I find Soilwork quickly boring except for a few songs. Darkane are ways better on this album, because there are 'no fillers, only killers' (as the saying goes).

Even with all these wonderful qualities, the sound still has a feeling of 'deja-vu'. It's a powerful, clean and agressive production of Daniel Bergstrand. You said it, the swedish sound is here ; although excellent, I think it lacks the 'little something' that would have spared Darkane a lot of criticism?
Conclusion : an excellent album, perfect for headbanging ! Darkane should leave the shadow of the most well knowns bands of the same background (no names anymore?) to come to their full glory !

Highlights : Nearly all songs should be there, cause the quality is at a constant (and high) level. I prefer Fatal Impact and Imaginary Entity, but Innocence Gone is the song that made me buy the album? Submission is quite strange, with a psychekedelic feel. Chaos vs Order seems well-liked, but it's probably the one that I like the less (note that Darkane's first singer, Lawrence Mackrory, appears on this song).