The year was 1986; Metallica had unleashed upon mankind a monster known as Master of Puppets(MOP), now widely acclaimed as the greatest metal album of all time. Slayer had come out with Reign In Blood(RIB), which was so extreme!! that it devoured anything in it's way(it still does!), running at the speed of light. Megadeth had released Peace Sells..But Who's Buying?(PSBWB) which catapulted them into metal stratosphere. And then there was this little band called Dark Angel with the release of their second album Darkness Descends. Being overshadowed by MOP is understandable to me; I mean c'mon, it was Metallica, riding on the lightning success of their previous album(pun intended) and MOP had musicianship that still has to be bettered by any band(that's including Metallica), but why this album doesn't get even half as much attention or acclaim as RIB or PSBWB is beyond me. Even Kreator's Pleasure To Kill(PTK) received more acclaim than this one...huh.(I'm not saying PTK was bad, it was a great thrash album).Anyway...let's talk about Darkness Descends now--First of all, it's way heavier!! than any of the albums mentioned above, heck..it's heavier than most late 80s and early 90s death metal.. Death,Obituary,Morbid Angel et al. The riffing on this album is just savage, brutally fast, falling just a little short of Slayer's RIB, barely!! The bass is much more prominent than RIB and I know I'm leaning towards blasphemy again, but I like the drumming on this album better than Slayer's RIB. So you noticed that I'm only comparing Darkness Descends with RIB and not with MOP or PSBWB eh? Well..as I said...MOP is godly, no comparison, and PSBWB was not even half as extreme as Darkness Descends, RIB or Kreator's PTK...that's why...ok?
This album does not have a single filler, all the songs are great. Even MOP had a filler...anybody remember The Thing That Should Not Be? If you want a slab of ultra heavy technical thrash metal, then this album is for you...listen to the 8 n a half minute epic Black Prophecies to know how it even challenges the musicianship of MOP sometimes...listen to Darkness Descends and Perish In Flames to know how this album runs neck to neck with RIB....if that doesn't satisfy you, listen to the whole album to know what it's like to listen to one of the greatest thrash albums of all time.
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Rating: 9.5/10
1 comment:
Its not leaning towards blastphemy if you speak the truth. Dark Angel was WAY better than slyer, and may have influenced tham. Early on, slyer would warm-up playing early dar angel songs, and Gene Holgan was backing vocals on Slayer's first album. I really don't care for MOP. Its too polished and mainstream, and well as too tame to be true thrash. Dark Angel was a very unique band, and together with Sadus, they were among the best from California. Metalllica, and Slayer are so overplayed and overrated its beyond anoying, and I respect the fact that you made this blog and challenged the commely held beliefs than most have about thrash, going in depth about the heavily underrated band.
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