Pitchblack Album Review

Darklight Corporation have packed a fuckload of wicked awesome rocking riffs and varied, yet simple and appropriately-audible lyrics, cool chewy samples and electronic bits strewn in just the right places to keep you guessing – there’s a little bit of everything in here.

Not too much of one thing, nor too pushy and repetitive like sooooo many bands these days – varied enough you could listen to this album dozens of times and still not hear everything. I’m really liking it eh – NZ should be damned proud of brutal and imaginative musicians like these.

I hear 8 Foot, Static-X, Rob Zombie, Wednesday 13 (that could just be the zombies though), Fear Factory, American Head Charge, Dethklok, Lamb of God, Machine Head … I could go on but I hate people that do because why should another band be compared to another?

I feel dirty for the comparisons above, and I apologise to you, the gentle metalhead, but I couldn’t help myself – there is one pro though, if you, the informed reader, have bothered to read this far, then you, like me, are probably a bogan, and are thinking to yourself, ‘hey, I like some/most/all of those bands, I should go have a listen to that shiz’. So go.

Here be dragons, and my thoughts on each track.

1.      Scar My Eyes (4:02)
Boot-stomping riff from the get-go, antagonisingly intriguing vocal hook. Hey hey motherfucker!

2.      The Fallen (3:21)
Gothic overtones (no, not emo, not quite Cradle either) add tweakie atmos here in the right places – heavy bassie rhythms accompanied by strong brutal vox.

3.      Crazyhorse (3:54)
Hahaha ‘it burns’ – I love it the more I hear it. Tweakie gax hooks, growlie vox. This is real chant-along track – I’d love to be in this mosh man, it would be brutally, exhaustingly epic!

4.      Blackout (3:46)
Wicked riff hook to haul you in – I really really liked this song within the first 20 seconds. And it only gets better!

5.      Down in a Hole (3:25)
Backing track is subtle yet pervasive – mixed in there so well it lends some intense atmos. Very cool. One of my favourites – and it’s damned hard picking just one, they’re all cool.

6.      Levitate (3:40)
Love the vox on this track, and the speed. There’s so much going on, and yet it’s not overwhelming. Nice ebbs and flows. Eerie outro.

7.      Enter the Void (1:35)
speaking of eerie … chills up my spine – electronica intro, to power riff chugging, rhythm section cranking up the chills … damn that’s creepily wicked.

8.      Lost Soul Society (3:19)
Head-banging chomping galloping riff, here’s another well-balanced, epic metal track. Lots of ‘traditional’ metal elements, all mixed up in a sweaty, bloody brew of progressive and beautiful fucken music. This is intense, each track is so damned good!

9.      Smother (3:19)
Different yet carrying on the theme … I’m loving the diversity shown throughout eh, from vox to tempo to sampling – so many bands make every track sound so damned similar it’s hard to tell them apart. Darklight Corporation somehow make the diversity into an overall red-hot molten audial tapestry that I’ll be immersing myself in for a long time to come.

I’m really feeling the electro-industrial metal thing they’re doing here, having lately just discovered Static-X and as a consequence re-discovering some of my all-time favourite artists in this genre, I’ve got a real hankering for the heavy electric industro at the moment, and I’m happy to say the shakes have been held at bay for a little while longer …

Hey hey motherfuckers, go fucken buy this album.
CEOMong