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6.5
- Bands:
CREST OF DARKNESS - Duration: 00:44:18
- Available from: 10/18/2024
- Label:
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My Kingdom Music
There are bands that, despite having a very long career, have never managed to make that leap that one would expect from those who have been on the scene for several decades: and no, it is often not a question of bad luck, nor even of 'finding yourself at the wrong place at the wrong time', but rather an inability to maintain constant quality levels (which would be the least problem) without ever excelling in the most inspired moments.
The Norwegian Crest Of Darkness are certainly a good example of this impasse artistic music which, after almost thirty years, never seems to take off, despite some absolutely interesting albums.
Born from an offshoot of the always too underrated Conception, Gjøvik's band produced three albums towards the end of the nineties that had captured the attention of many, thanks to the work of Listenable Records and a quite original and histrionic mix of symphonic black and more progressive influences, only to fall into a spiral of less than happy releases that risked relegating the band to oblivion.
Fortunately, in the last ten years Ingar Amlien, founder and author of most of the songs, seems to have returned to the glories of his early days thanks to three works of undoubted quality and inspiration. Five years after the excellent “The God Of Flesh” the Norwegians return to us with a work that is on paper the darkest and most extreme of their entire career.
The coordinates of Crest Of Darkness' sound remain those of a metal always poised between black and death, with some ideas out of the ordinary: nothing to cry miracles about but, amidst references to Rotting Christ in the opening track “My Ghost” and the progressive of the schizophrenic “Infected”, we come across real flashes of genius such as “Sacrificed To The Sun”, a song in which the trumpet of the jazz musician Roy Nikolaisen plays the leading role in an absolutely perfect way , while a sinister voice in reverse keeps the atmosphere in black tones, despite a keyboard solo with an old school progressive flavor.
More violent but equally histrionic is “The Awakening”, which between death metal riffs and sustained rhythms has time to give a delicious psychedelic and almost jazzy interlude in which the trumpet appears again. Unfortunately the band never seems to dare fully and often gets lost in interesting but a little too scholastic moments like “Call Of The Moon”, “The Ultimate Truth” or the furious “Satanic”, poised between the old Scandinavian school and monolithic slightly dated breakdowns, embellished with elegant solos and a decidedly disturbing use of the voice. The production for its part does its job, managing to do justice to the various instruments although the drums, although played, are sometimes a little synthetic and cold.
“My Ghost” is an album that thrives on blacks and whites (in this sense the cover is absolutely themed) but which never has the courage to dare fully, and it's a real shame because the original ideas and some brilliant ideas are there yes, but they remain in the shadow of a general sense of comfort that risks relegating Crest Of Darkness to a dangerous limbo, without doing any justice to their potential.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM