Füneral Rain Press Cörps

Genre: Heavy Metal, Doom
Label: Stormspell Records

It’s been four years since the release of DarkBlack’s “The Barbarian’s Hammer” EP and if you ask me, it’s been far too fucking long! These power/speed/NWOBHM heroes serve up a steaming helping of awesome with the release of “The Sellsword”, an album that is in most respects, a perfect album. Ignoring the obvious influences (Judas Priest, Diamond Head and even a twinge of Black Sabbath here and there), DarkBlack manages to keep their shit from sounding like (fill in the NWOBHM blank here) worship by adding their own flare in every conceivable angle. From pounding to shredding, DarkBlack has their craft down pat!

Earlier I said, “…in most respects, a perfect album.” Here’s why I said most: the mixing is muddier than Chimera’s diaper after I let her have a few bites of her mother’s enchiladas! The vocals are way too low in the mix and it a fucking shame since Tim has perfect voice for screamin’ the metal.

Overall: DarkBlack captures the spirit of the NWOBHM and morphs it into their own unholy army that they unleash upon the world in “The Sellsword”!!!

9.5/10

DarkBlack On MySpace

NOTE: This is a REPOST from E-MetalSpace

Genre: Heavy Metal, Power Metal, Speed Metal
Label: Stormspell Records

About a year ago, Darkblack released an album under the name, The Sellsword… and it was glorious. So for me and many others, Midnight Wraith’s release is an epic event in and of itself. Ah, but here’s the rub; will it live up to it’s magnificent metal masterpiece of a predecessor? The answer: Oh good lord, YES!

Right off the bat there’s a noticeable improvement: they fixed the mixing problem I bitched a little too much about in my review of The Sellsword. So now, Tim Smith’s pitch perfect for preaching the metal pipes are out front where they belong! Not to be outdone, Anthony Crocamo’s axe swingin’ is tip-top notch, akin to that of maybe a Glenn Tipton and a energetic Kyle Shutt. And since Midnight Wraith’s tempo never shifts too far from mid paced, so you’ll get some thick riffs from time to time, but he never skip on the groove. Ohhhh yeah!

Other than the obvious length issue, I have nothing to gripe about.  Midnight Wraith blends all of the truly classic forms of metal into a super metal that cannot be stopped! Darkblack RULES! Period.

Overall: This release is everything I’ve come to expect from Darkblack and am damn glad that the need for anything, even an EP went answered. They read my emails! (Only kidding folks.)

10/10

Darkblack On MySpace

In an official message from DARKBLACK: “We’ve added a new warrior to our Metal Force! We are very happy to announce, that our good friend Cliff will be taking over bass guitar duties for DARKBLACK. Tim in turn will be working solely the vocal end of things from now on with Cliff raging on the bass! Check out the new feel, live at Berbati’s Pan in PDX on February 19th with the Lord Weird Slough Feg!”