Give Me Light

I picked up this album not knowing what I would expect, but I was relieved that it was descent enough to play it again. Darkseed is an interesting band that has the ability to be great. They alternate between Death and Gothic vocals, sometimes in the same song, or having different songs with different sounding vocals. The Gothic vocals sound very sufficient in the song “Echoes of Tomorrow”, which is also one of the highlights of the album. The acoustic version of the song is also pleasant to listen to, as it is probably the best song on the album.

The album starts off with the song, “Dancing With The Lion.” Now, this is a good song, but the band uses too much of the same formula for their other songs for this album to truly stand out. There is a difference between a band’s signature sound and using the same tired composition of songs throughout the entire album, which this band does frequently. Because the songs are enjoyable to listen to, it does not have a huge impact on the overall reaction that I got, but if the songs were slightly weaker, I would have lowered the score that it received.

The song “Fusion,” which is the seventh track, was pretty useless. It is basically a melodic rendition of some techno song, or that’s what I got the impression of, anyway. I understand that it was used as an intermission track, or at least I hope so, but it really does not strengthen the album. It does have an appealing sound to it, but it’s definitely not metal, and not what I expected. It also goes for the 11th track, which is “Desire.” It’s basically an intermission track to introduce the hidden 12th track. Totally useless and I thought I was listening to some easy listening shit for a minute and 40 seconds.

The rest of the tracks like I said follow similar guidelines to the general sound of the album, alternating from Gothic inspired Metal to a more Death Metal approach, but only for a bit, with a few growls and heavier guitars here and there. The album could have used a bit more variety and more of the Death Metal aspect that the band shows on some parts of their songs. Overall this album is descent. It’s a good album, if you’re into “lighter” music, but if you’re into something that will make your head bang, look elsewhere.