Darkdayrising "Underworld Dreams" CD
[self-released]
After an unnecessary (and unlisted) synth instrumental, these death metal influenced hardcore shredders from The Netherlands churn out five tracks of burly metalcore with tons of moderately paced tremolo picking rhythms, faster patterns that sort of bring modern black metal to mind, and vocals that range from midrange sneers to guttural growls. It's funny because this looks like a death metal record, even though the band looks like hardcore kids and thanks "THE STRAIGHT EDGE" (in all caps, absolutely) at the end of their thanks list. The logo looks like a death metal logo, the colors, textures, and images look like the types of things you'd see on a metal record... you'd never think these guys were anything other than a metal band were it not for the band photo and the contents of the thanks list. Weird. I'm not sure what to make of this stuff. There's definitely a European metalcore flare to some of the off kilter Slayer sounding material (think Congress, Liar, that sort of stuff), and some of the melodic playing has that At the Gates flare... so it's not really original, but it's not as generic as all of the other bands playing similar styles right now - mainly because this is definitely more in the metal vein. "March of Damnation" even has a slick clean intro with tons of chorus on the guitars and all that jazz. That's metal, baby. The production is pretty damn good. The vocals are a tad loud and the bass is hard to hear, but the guitars sound great and the drums are nice and crisp (a little on the rigid side, but not over the top). For a self-released EP they did a good job, because I've heard plenty of full-lengths released by "big" labels that sound way worse than this. I like the style of the artwork, but I'm not that big on the actual content (a faceless woman on a bed with what looks like some sort of demon looking over her). The lyrics are also relatively metal. Mentioning demons, death, and war on more than a few occasions. And of course song titles like "Infernal Darkness" and "Written in Blood" don't say, "Hey, this must be a straightedge band." The lyrics are scarcely more interesting than their over simplified titles, offering nothing that hasn't really been done before, and as is often the case a lot of the rhyming sort of deadens the blow. "The earth is a kingdom of evil, Where chaos and corruption rule, The time of our realm has come, It's time to crush the fools, As I watch the world crumble at my feet, Insight is served upon me, There is only one way that will lead to glory, Join the forces of the horned one and you will prosper, This shall be your darkest hour..." I don't know. This isn't that bad, but the songwriting isn't doing too much for me. I think "March of Damnation" is a great song because it's a bit slower, and some of the more emphatic dual guitar work is pretty powerful, but the tremolo picking stuff falls flat. I also like the low vocals way better than the typical screaming stuff. There's potential here, they just need to focus on the vicious midpaced riffing and try to shed some of the stale traits that are so common these days. (5/10)
Running time - 20:20, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: March of Damnation]
Darkdayrising - http://fade.to/darkdayrising/

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