Admittedly I’ve always dug both key variants of the Swedish death metal sound, those being Stockholm and Gothenburg. While the Stockholm sound was ripping, cavernous, gutted by the HM-2 pedal (Swedish Chainsaw, y’all!), the Gothenburg sound was inherently more melodic, generally faster, a distant cousin of the US thrash of its time. Oakland, California is nowhere near Gothenburg, though, so when DARKNESS EVERYWHERE’s debut EP landed on my desk, I had to investigate.
As much as I despise intro tracks, ‘Apocalyptic Nightmares’ gets a pass due to its nod to my beloved doom, a simple pattern delivered over dual guitars (more on that later). With ‘Darkness Everywhere’ we’re crammed into a DeLorean with riffs instead of a flux capacitor and McFly’d back to the mid-‘90s, which in this case ain’t a bad thing. Reminiscences of beer, whiskey, sweat and ditch weed abound, vocalist [also guitars, drums] Ben Murray giving exactly no fucks about keeping things pristine in his delivery while his cohorts in cacophony Cameron Stucky and Zack Ohren [guitars, bass respectively] complete the trio.
‘The Grand Impact’ presses the pedal down a good bit harder, guest vocals by DARKEST HOUR’s John Henry joining the fray, and there’s a bit of a galloping riff here, peppered with some tasty twin leads, which – when done right – can turn an “alright” song into “good”. The foot hits the floor with ‘Reign Of Chaos’, a catchy bridge from 1:34-1:57 leading into a mini-guitar duel coda, and the title track does what it should in gathering the best of what’s come before.
Very much a guitar album, I’d like to see the band rounded out by a live drummer, and to hear the band move a bit more beyond their obvious influences. As it stands, though, The Seventh Circle is a document of a band just over a year old taking its first steps and not falling on its ass while doing so. Here’s to (hopefully) watching these dudes grow…
Review By: Lord Randall
DARKNESS EVERYWHERE
The Seventh Circle [EP]
Creator-Destructor Records
3 / 6