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| Artwork by Costin Chioreanu. |
Though Severance is almost four years old, now is a great time to revisit it. Darkest Era share an overall mood with Solstice and Primordial, the former just released their first album in 20 years and the latter is releasing their ninth at the end of the month.
Darkest Era, though being the youngest of the three bands, was the first I heard, diving into the other two when I wanted more of what Darkest Era had on offer. All three bands play melancholic folk-inflected metal leaning on melody and compound time signatures. Primordial's epic melodic blackened take on heavy metal and Solstice's bottom heavy epic doom approach neatly bookend Darkest Era's sound; faster and more blackened that Solstice but doomier and more classic metal than Primordial.
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| Darkest Era 2013. Photos by Dvergir |
At their core they're a classic heavy metal band complete with epic clean vocals and twin guitar attack. Their magic is how they bring other styles into the fold without ever sacrificing the classic metal feel. The songs are rife with tremolo guitar lines and blast beats as well as melodeath style repeated note riffs instead of sustains, strung together with folky rhythms and with melancholic lyrics straight out of the doom playbook. Through it all they never lose the fist-pumping heavy metal feel.
Bands incorporating many styles can sometimes come apart a bit at the seams but there are no weak points on Severance. The vocals soar throughout, the drums kill everything from the blasts to the 6/8 stomp, the guitars nail everything from the screaming leads to the tremolos. There are even numerous audible bass riffs that round out the record.
Severance is simply one of the best metal records of the past decade. Darkest Era stand with Solstice and Primordial as titans of metal.
Note: Since Severance, Darkest Era have released a 2 song EP with nicely dynamic production (DR 9). If they keep that production for their follow up full-length I will never stop talking about it.
