Coming of 2012

The American Darkest Grove return after an absence of six years, with a new album, which was just released, called “Coming of 2012”. By “Pain and Suffering Shall be Known” it had appeared that the band has inspiration, talent and I was sure that their next work would be at least interesting. Well yes, their new work confirms that prediction. The time that has passed since their last album is very long, surely much have changed also for the band but I think that it benefited them more than they were obstructed. Their sound became darker, more mature but without the identity of the band being altered. The album contains nine tracks of about one hour of duration.

Their music in this album has become much more dark, harsh and fast, while there are a lot of Thrash/Death passages. The tracks don’t exceed six minutes, apart from the huge “Return of the Moon Children” which endures for twenty five minutes, but generally their structure is very good so the listener not only he doesn’t get bored, but also he gets easily into the atmosphere of the tracks. The riffs have much variety, other times they are fast, brutal, stormy, while other times they are rhythmic mid paced, depressing, torturing. So Darkest Grove present us the coming of 2012, by the lyrics but also musically, with a journey starting by the brutality, going to depression and ending to chaos, symbolizing like that the route, leading to the destruction of the world. Unfortunately the promo that I have, doesn’t contain the lyrics, but I believe that they will be as much interesting as the music.

All instruments can be heard clearly and they are played well, without mistakes and with quite interesting lines. The vocals are very expressive, with many changes in style depending on the part and the feeling and they are harsh, raw Black Metal vocals wile in parts you will listen from heavy Death vocals to screams like Silencer. The production is better than that of the previous work, cleaner and less bassy, but without the sound losing its identity. The mix is also very good, helps in putting out a massive sound.

Darkest Grove show that for six years they were working and with “Coming of 2012” they come to confirm their talent and their quality, more mature and having achieved to imprint their personal identity and their creative mood to the album. I don’t say that in this album you will listen to something unique or something that has never been played before, but through various influences the band creates music of high quality. Definitely it is a good album to buy or at least spend one hour to listen to it.