Darkness
Death Squad

No!

I'm not about to review an album by the British Rock n Roll band The Darkness. I'm removing the article (The) to throw "Death Squad" in your face, created by 5 scoundrels who are much less "Catchy" and reassuring, as you can also see from each of their self-portraits (?) in Cannibal/Zombie version on the cover, as if they had come out of a Lucio Fulci film.

The Darkness was formed in Essen (GER), in 1984 from the meeting of three guys: Lacky "Torturer" (drums and vocals), Hartmut "Agony" Schoner (bass) and Andreas "Skull" Beckler (guitar), after attending a concert of their fellow countrymen Destruction and Tormentor (pre-Kreator), who later became two of the most gigantic and established in European and international Thrash Metal. Soon after, another guitar man joined the trio, a certain Uwe Christophers, who had made it his trademark to remove the high E string from his "axe," effectively playing with 5 strings, probably because he wanted to emphasize the fact that he considered himself a rhythm guitarist and not a soloist. With a complete lineup, our guys started releasing various Demo tapes for 3 years, until in 1987, with a more mature and completely new lineup, they gave birth to their first Full-Length: "Death Squad."

I recommend listening at a non-low volume, with a fan stuck to you, possibly in your underwear and ideally at two-thirty in the afternoon with the window wide open (just to be friendly to the neighbors); in short, try to create the most ignorant atmosphere possible, immersing yourself in a state of total slothfulness of the "I've got no ambitions in my life" series (maybe thinking about the various horrified facial expressions your mother might make if, coming home from work, she found you in this state). After all, the sound of the entire album is almost consistent with the situation just described: 9 hyper-kinetic bombtracks, ultra-fast and ruthless, that leave no room for any form of class or grace. An uncorrect album, far from catchy and reeking of alcohol and split ends (even the hair stinks). But despite the lack of magical touch, composure, or various frills, our guys seem anything but incapable with the instruments, as you can notice listening to the instrumental Tarsman Of Chor, a very good example of composition, where well-fitted riffs accompany a repeatedly played solo, which "resembles" vaguely (just because other examples don't come to mind) that of Am I Evil? by the British Diamond Head in a slowed-down version. So ignorance yes, but also the ability to keep the listener on edge with splendid arpeggios serving as the intro of the "Calm before the storm" series. I'm talking about the intro+song Invasion Sector 12/Critical Threshold: Arpeggiated guitar, calm, peaceful, with chirping birds and nature sounds in the background, until, little by little, that pleasant and relaxing sound fades away, blending with a roar of typical wartime gunfire, almost as if to bring the unsuspecting listener absorbed in their world (perhaps convinced of listening to a Country disc) into a harsh and far from pleasant reality (Critical Threshold). Citing a prophecy of Nostradamus circa the year 1999, in the lyric, The Darkness wants to describe to us (through violent notes) a futureless world: holocausts, wars, nuclear disasters, and the ignorance of people, governments, armies that, despite the massacres of the past, still haven't learned anything and persist in conflicts of interest:

"Armies stand steady, to fire at will

Nagasaki, Hiroshima, why didn't they learn

All these dark deceivers, no time to turn."

Intelligent and Thrash-oriented lyrics come out of the mouth of the singer Olli (RIP) with a very raw voice, a mix between Mille Petrozza in his early days and Marchel Schmier's in full "kraut style." Notable is the influence of albums like Endless Pain, Eternal Devastation and why not, Possessed By Fire by Exumer, released just a year earlier. But just like the opening track, the others continue in the most absolute destructive violence. For this, the title track and Faded Pictures deserve a spot on the podium, especially the latter, a sliver of Thrash/Hardcore Punk without frills, featuring tight riffing and wildly insane rhythms. Though truth be told, the one that truly surprised me was the most "foreign" track on the album if you will, Burial At Sea, a slow song, a mid-tempo, in my opinion, very successful, as it practically has everything: introductory arpeggio, guitars this time more epic and roaring, "vitriolic" voice as usual, dark riff chorus that grabs you right away and a great solo.

There isn't much else to say about this work, except to remember that it is one of the many Thrash-gems of the '80s unjustly forgotten, or rather, more than forgotten, never known on a large scale. 

To listen to only if you don't give a damn about Pantera, Meshuggah, or all those "ultra-techno-pumped" evolutions, commercial and, in my opinion, ridiculously flashy that Heavy Metal has developed from the mid-'90s to the present day. To listen to then, only if you are shit nostalgics like me.