Worthy of its title…
Review by Jason Guest
Release date: 31 January 2015
Formed in 2013, Slovakian five-piece black metal horde Darktimes has delivered their debut album, the ominous, immense and impressive Triumph ov Chaos. The shapeless matter of darkness is given form in six tracks that run at just over the thirty minute-mark, the band’s vehement rendering of the collapse and reincarnation of matter and energy a potent and powerful one.
Heavily blackened chords, pounding drums and a slowly twisting guitar riff introduce the darkly foreboding ‘Seduction – Cold Light Hypnosis’. And then two minutes in, savagery ensues. What follows is a clenched-fist of an album; a viciously concentrated piece of work with all superfluities crushed and disposed of. Excellent. Diversely structured, the tracks are tightly focused, each riff, each melody, and each menacing chord burning the all-consuming darkness intently and intensely, the band knowing when to let the darkness breathe and when to feed the fire.
Nrem’s acidic vocal style incorporates the harsh and the deathly, spreading them across the scorched earth atmospherics to enhance each track’s individual passage. Guitarists Narakh and Nebbulus and bassist Namtar work well together, their guitar lines complementary with the bottom end providing a firm and unmoving foundation for the enigmatic melodies that course their way through the album’s ominous air. And drummer Ossa is both solid and fluid. Maintaining the menace, he not only holds the album together with a performance as sturdy as his lines but gives the tracks and the album an interesting dynamic that takes its cues from the music and the vocals.
Along with the orchestrated passage in ‘Nyx – Over My Shadows’ and the exceptional near-nine minute closer ‘Darkbringer – Cursed In Time’, the combined musicianship and compositional skill of Darktimes is outstanding. With a solid production to ensure that every note, every beat, and every syllable makes its intended impact, while not wholly original, this album is more than worthy of its title.
8 out of 10
- Read Jason’s interview with guitarist Narakh here
- Dark Times Ov Chaos on Bandcamp
Track Listing:
- Seduction – Cold Light Hypnosis
- Sirius – The Dark Rebirth
- Pillars Ov Creation – Forlorn Soul
- Aeon Rain – Into Event Horizon
- Nyx – Over My Shadows
- Darkbringer – Cursed In Time
