DARKNESS BEFORE DAWN - KING'S TO YOUN
BOMBWORKS RECORDS
Metal To Infinity
Hails,
time to raise your fists in the air because here's Darkness Before Dawn's debut
album ''King's To You'' packed with splendid headcrushing modern Death / Black
Metal. DBD has its roots in Glendale, Arizona (US) and consists in Logan
Kavanaugh – Vocals, Gabe Santillan – Guitars, DJ Foley – Bass, Matt Lopez
– Drums, TJ Denny – Keyboards and Trey ??? - guitars (Trey isn't mentioned
on the CD so I guess he's new to the DBD-crew). They're no strangers in the
extreme underground being a consistent force in the Southwest for several years
now, touring with bands such as Job For A Cowboy, The Tony Danza Tap Dance
Extravaganza, Imperial etc. they prove to deserve a place amongst the bigger
bands out there.
In
2007 they released a 5 track EP that had an Epic Metalcore sound,
they followed that up with a 3 track demo that rooted DBD in the modern
Death / Black
Metal. Influences are Dethklok, The Black Dahlia Murder, In Flames, Nile...
to name a few so you can guess what you'll get listening to these guys!!!
It
was not an easy job to review this album and it took me several times to fully
explore the whole album, reason is it's so diverse. This is a band with lots of
ambition, potential and great ideas but still i think sometimes they
loose themselves in making songs to technical, which isn't always a bad thing...
don't get me wrong but some tracks could be divided in two songs due to the
massive amount of riffs. The overall sound on this album is excellent, heavy
guitar riffage, pounding bass and drums, fearsome grunts and screams, spheric keys (which
are in my opinion a bit to prominent in the mix)... still it has everything that
a great earcrushing Metal album needs to blow you're head off!
The
album starts off with 'Monster Condo' and from the first riff the tone is set,
dark key intro, heavy riffing & pounding rhythm section, the solo is filled
with arpeggio's and gives a very nice touch to the track. One of my favourite
tracks is 'Mobius Strip', the first riff gives a Gothenburg feel and that's what
I like, the combination with a Metalcore touch makes it complete. 'Shattered' is
a great example of this band's potential, combination of modern Metal, Metalcore
and nice clean passages, the heavy production on this album makes it a joy
listening and the whole album makes you’ll band that head spontaneously! 'Die
to Yourself' is another personal favourite, great intro with lots of feeling,
tight breakdown, good solo at the end and again i get that Gothenburg feel, very
nice indeed! The last track 'Symbiosis' is a true bombshell to finish, the
additional vocals by Chris Foglia works great in combination with Logan's voice,
something they should do more often because it's brilliant, the solo in this track
is the best one on this album and shows off the high skills Gabe has!
To
conclude “Kings To You” is a must have for every True Modern Metal head out
there!
Pay
these guys a visit at: www.myspace.com/darknessbeforedawn
for a sneak preview of the album and I'm pretty sure you'll like it and buy the
album!
My Rating: 85 / 100 (Review by Nicolas Bruggeman)