Acid River

One of the most pleasant surprises of the year, Dark Millennium really knocked it out of the park with this smashing release. I personally found their previous two releases a bit lacking, but with Acid River, it’s safe to say that they’ve reached back to what made their first two albums the masterpieces that they were and injected it with a modern touch. Their unusual combination of prog and doom with a dash of technicality always had me transfixed from the start, reminding me of the classic Septicflesh and Rotting Christ albums of the 90’s. In case you were still wondering, this album is the perfect amalgamation of the past and future sound of the band with the guitars having the perfect middle and bottom edge, giving the album an extra sonic layer to feast on. Although I have to say that the genre tag of progressive death/doom is partly incomplete since there are many extra layers to the music than one would think on the first listen of the album. The opening song “The Verger” proves that fact in spades with riffs, clean interludes and spacey keys all finding their own space, yet adding to the vibe of the song.

The first thing that leaps out is that the guitars have such a raw, punchy sound that you simply do not find in most metal releases of today and the exceptional addition of more clean picking parts has worked out marvelously in their favour. They help give the album a much more mystical and ethereal feel, especially in sounds like “Lunacy” and “Vessel”. Many of the riffs take their influence not just from Atheist and Death, but also the stellar 90’s melodeath releases of bands like At the Gates and Arch Enemy. Rest assured that was the time when death metal was starting to take different shapes of its own with experimentation being extremely central to the theme of the genre itself. Disciplined, hard-hitting music with a plethora of unique ideas and melodies mixed into the melting pot of unrestrained chaos that death metal is known for. The closing track “Death Comes In Waves” is the perfect embodiment of the sound of Dark Millennium as a whole – chaotic and eerie death metal fused with uniquely trippy and doom-laden clean guitar parts paired with the classic blackened death snarling vocals.

Here, it’s truly stunning to see how the technicality is mixed so perfectly with the memorability and hard-hitting nature of the riffs, especially today where other bands only focus on mindless technicality and nothing else. You only need to listen to “Godforgotten” (with a sublime melodic breakdown at the end) and “Threshold” for further proof. Then again, that’s to be expected from the band that’ve been such stalwarts in the scene and never gotten their due. Having said that, I wouldn’t be surprised if this album changes that along with the fact that dissonant riffs are used to great effect in songs like “Essence” and “”. Some of the leads are also really soaring and melodic, enhancing the epic quality of the music even further. The best part is makority of the music is mid-paced with short bursts of speed, giving you enough time and energy to really sink your teeth into it, while other bands in the same genre usually focus on one out of two aspects instead of both. That itself proves just how accomplished these guys are at the sheer art of songwriting and dynamics in the music, which is indeed a rare find these days.

While everything today is about “fitting in” and “being cool”, listening to shitty music and metal you don’t like just to get some validation and fit in with the popular gang and whatnot, revel in this gem and understand why old-school death metal in all its forms is still popular today. There were little to no trends or any of that shit back in the day with good quality music being the only priority of the day, regardless of the genre. It’s as simple as that. Nowadays even in metal, so many people listen to the music only to forget about all of it the next day and move on to the next thing. Well there’s none of that here as once you listen to this, it’ll definitely stick with you for a long time so get cracking and do the needful! Even though we’re cruising though the 3rd month of the year, I’d say we’ve already got a strong contender for AOTY. If you’re looking for metal music that is different and refreshingly unique from the norm, picking this album up is an absolute no-brainer.