Dark Season
Cruel Domination

THE REVIEW

One looks at the cover and expects some sort of futuristic and sci-fi metal, while reality brings us back to a metal geared towards human experience and more melodic, certainly more direct, but without being flashy or saccharine.

With their debut album, Dark Season prove their worth: filling forty minutes of actual music (no intros or dead moments) without breaks and at the same time without becoming boring or mechanical is already a great achievement. Thrash interspersed with influences of mellowed Swedish death (the latest style of Arch Enemy and In Flames) flows without difficulty: powerful guitar riffs that are never scattered accompany great drum work that manages to energize the record with breaks and nice double kick passages.

The group's inexperience shows in the basic structure of the tracks, which is very similar, in the riffs themselves that are too academic at some points, and finally in a vocalist who does not know how to add color to the verses, focusing on fierce choruses (some of which are very successful). They know how to work very well on the melodies, especially of the solos: the crucial solo contribution is fundamental, this time closer to Children Of Bodom in terms of elaboration and effects. The variety of "This Cruel Domination" suggests that there will be significant developments, perhaps in the next and imminent album they will emphasize the industrial elements of their sound (here in minimal quantities), or they might manage to make a significant death metal turn.

The foundations are there, dear Dark Season, let's build something original on top of it.