MAXIMUM METAL
   Navigate: main >> reviews

R E V I E W S


Darkane
Demonic Art

Company: Massacre
Release: 2008
Genre: Thrash, death
Reviewer: Raising Iron

  • Established fans of Darkane will enjoy this



    • 2009 and Darkane continue their fusion of thrash and melodic death metal with their latest release called Demonic Art. Their distinct hybrid of styles remains intact despite a change behind the microphone; now that long-time frontman Andreas Sydow has left, Darkane has employed a new singer who's no stranger to this style--Jens Broman from the similar Swedish outfit, Construcdead. He's a perfect fit as he's more than capable of singing the back catalog dead-on, as well as lending his gruff vox to this new release.

    Darkane dwell in the same dimension as bands like Soilwork and The Haunted; injecting healthy doses of thrash into their melodic death metal foundation. Here though, the band has more than asserted thrash as the premise with slight layers of melodic death metal infused, especially come chorus time. This is where this album is a bit weak, as even though the choruses are powerful, catchy, and quite singable, the songs are formulaic. Almost every song boils down to speedy, thrashy verses juxtaposed with heavy, mid-paced choruses containing a bit of bombast and that old school melodic Swedish death metal sound (they are from Sweden after all). It's a technique that's worked for them on their previous 4 albums, so they're staying with it. Feature tracks would have to be Impetuous Constant Chaos and Absolution, with their large choruses driving the melodies into your cerebrum.

    Established fans of Darkane will enjoy this release, as even though there is a new singer on board they've hardly missed a beat. Anyone looking for thrash metal built around technical, blazing riffs and new to this crew will find Demonic Art as good a place as any to start unearthing their catalog.



    Maximum Metal Rating Legend - Full Details
    5 Excellent - Buy it and say a prayer to the metal gods that you were tuned on to this masterpiece. A classic.
    4-4.5 Great - Almost perfect records but there's probably a clunker or a lacking somewhere to keep it from perfection. You won't feel bad about dropping some bones on these.
    3.5 Good - Most of the record is good, but there may be some filler. This is the OK range where you'd search for the record on sale or used.
    3 Average - Some good songs, some bad ones at about a half/half ratio. Could show skills but be dull overall. Redeeming qualities for indy bands are effort and passion. Majors that don't try or suck outright end up here.
    2-2.5 Fair - Worth a listen, but best obtained by collectors. There is much better metal out there.
    1-1.5 Bad - Major problems with music, lyrics, production, etc.
    0 Terrible or an otherwise waste of your life and time.

    Note: Reviews are graded from 0-5, anything higher or not showing is from our old style. Scores, however, do not reveal the important features. The written review that accompanies the ratings is the best source of information regarding the music on our site. Reviewing is opinionated, not a qualitative science, so scores are personal to the reviewer and could reflect anything from being technically brilliant to gloriously cheesy fun.

    The best way to determine how much you may like certain music is to listen to it yourself.

    Demos and independent releases get some slack since the bands are often spent broke supporting themselves and trying to improve. Major releases usually have big financial backing, so they may be judged by a heavier hand. All scores can be eventually adjusted up or down by comparison of subsequent releases by the same band. We attempt to keep biases out of reviews and be advocates of the consumer without the undo influence of any band, label, management, promoter, etc.


    All reviews for this band:
    CD
    		 TITLE BAND
    DOR
    		 REVIEWER DATE
    		Demonic ArtDarkane
    2008
    		Raising Iron7/2/2009
    		Layers Of LiesDarkane
    2005
    		EC7/25/2005


    Interviews found from this band:
    INTERVIEW BAND INTERVIEWER DATE


    You may also like:

    Burden Of Grief   |   Divine Heresy   |   Immolation   |   The Vision Bleak   |   Cannibal Corpse   |   Napalm Death   |   Hypocrisy   |   Nile   |   The Few Against Many   |   Thornafire   |   


    << back >>




       REVIEW FEATURES
    Review Submission
    We are accepting guest reviews on a limited basis! Check our form rules for submitting your review to be shown on Maximum Metal--link



    Review Status
    Find out here what CDs our staff is currently listening to or where your CD may have ended up-- Where is my CD?



    Review Walls
    See what over 1000+ reviews look like graphically! Note the cover version will need to load lots of small images and is a bit bandwidth intensive.

    Text Link Version  .  Album Cover Version


       SITE STATS
    Reviews
    Total Reviews: 1824
    Total Different Bands: 1322
    Total Styles: 15
    Style List
    Reviewer Breakdown



    Companies
    Total Companies: 402

    Top Company Reviews:
    Nuclear Blast - 126
    Century Media - 89
    Candlelight Records - 88
    SPV/Steamhammer - 83
    Sanctuary Records - 42
    Metal Blade - 39
    Earache Records - 38
    AFM Records - 35
    Crash Music - 30
    Southern Lord - 27
    The End Records - 24
    Regain Records - 24

    Full Company Breakdown

    Company Links



    Styles
    Total Styles: 15

    Breakdown:
    Power -     384
    Death -     266
    Hard Rock - 257
    Black - 164
    Heavy/Extreme - 149
    Thrash - 144
    Traditional - 140
    Doom/Stoner - 94
    Progressive - 91
    Gothic/Symphonic - 56
    Metalcore/Hardcore - 25
    NWOAHM - 24
    Nu/Rapcore - 16
    Industrial - 14


       LABEL SEARCH
    Choose from the options in the dropdown to see the companies that may carry the selected style.
      Copyright Maximum Metal 2003-10