Today, pan-international quintet Darkened stream the entirety of their debut EP, Into the Blackness, at Decibel magazine’s website. Set for international release on August 23rd via Edged Circle Productions, hear Darkened‘s aptly titled Into the Blackness in its entirety exclusively HERE.
Although a brand-new entity, Darkened host a wealth of experience in the death metal underground, comprising drummer Andy Whale (ex-Bolt Thrower / Memoriam), bassist Daryl Kahan (ex-Disma / Funebrarum), vocalist Gord Olson (Ye Goat-Herd Gods / Demisery), and guitarists Linus Nirbrant (A Canorous Quintet / This Ending) and Hempa Brynolfsson (Excruciate / Ordo Inferus). As such, the band’s opening salvo is truly a sum of all its not-inconsiderable parts. Short but most definitely sweet, the four-song/16-minute Into the Blackness is all-caps DEATH METAL of a cool and cruising and above all CRUSHING aspect. Imagine the stately, steely pulse of later Bolt Thrower or the subsequent Memoriam, a smattering of gutted doom ala Disma or spiritual kin Funebrarum, and dusted with the classy melodicism of A Canorous Quintet and successors This Ending, but all done with a touch that’s somewhere between comfortably familiar and subtly unique, and you have the sum total charm of Darkened. However, the strength of this unit is their songwriting, and Into the Blackness possesses such in spades – and they’re only beginning.
No better time, then, to get Darkened and go Into the Blackness! Get fully CRUSHED by Into the Blackness exclusively HERE, courtesy of Decibel, North America’s only monthly metal magazine. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Darkened’s Into the Blackness
1. Into The Blackness – Intro
2. The Offering
3. Darkening Of My Soul
4. Unredeemed
DARKENED lineup
Hempa Brynolfsson – guitars (Excruciate / Ordo Inferus)
Daryl Kahan – bass (ex-Disma / Funebrarum)
Andy Whale – drums (ex-Bolt Thrower / Memoriam)
Linus Nirbrant – guitars (This Ending / A Canorous Quintet)
Gord Olson – vocals (Ye Goat-Herd Gods / Demisery)
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