Existence

This album is one of the finest pieces of progressive metal you will ever get to hear. Dark Suns have created an epic masterpiece that combines beautiful melodic tunes, deep rich singing and also dark heavy metal rhythms.

Existence is a significant step forward after "Swanlike," their first full length album in that they got rid of lead singer Niko Knappes' death metal growls, and replaced it entirely with his clean vocals which, while they did feature in "Swanlike" they weren't as prominent. What they have kept - and for this I am grateful - is the haunting yet strangely beautiful tunes that come of that unique blend of deep guitar riffing, synthesised keyboards and the aforementioned singing. An excellent example of this would be "You, A Phantom Still" which starts off with an orchestral style violin piece, played in a minor key, giving it the haunting feel I mentioned earlier. After just overa minute and a half of this classical piece, the guitars and drums hit in. Yet, one can still hear the violins continuing over the top for pretty much the entire track.

Yet Dark Suns rarely go that heavy, and normally I love heaviness, in this album it doesn't seem to matter. There is still a darkness and edge to it, without ever pounding out heavy riffs and drumming. Songs such as the powerful final track, "One Endless Childish Day" incorporate double bass drumming, with soaring violins, down tuned guitar riffs altogether to create a dark yet somehow emotionally moving piece (the track starts off with a sad sounding piano piece)

The album flows incredibly from one track to the next, and it is through this that I claim it is Epic - for starts, eight out of the 11 tracks are over five minutes long, and out of those three of them are over ten minutes long each. This epic feel is heightened as you transition from one track to the next, as they fit so well together. The album progresses perfectly from one track to the next, and I would recommend that the listener has to hear the album in it's entirety from start to finish, to get the full benefits of this.

With Existence, Dark Suns have shown the world perhaps the lighter side of metal, without ever compromising the metal and progressive feel. It is a stunning album that soars from strength to strength, and I can't recommend it enough.