Darker Half
Never Surrender

Australian band Darker Half will finally have their third album Never Surrender released to a European audience. I say finally because it was originally released in 2014, but to make up for the delay the band is said to also be preparing to tour a little in Europe so that is something for those of you who like the album. The artwork is interesting and good looking, and overall the album looks like a fairly typical heavy metal album.

And that is exactly what it is, heavy-/power metal from down under, no strange stuff just plain and simple heavy metal. Maybe that it draws in the direction of the music we heard from German band Angel Dust in the late 1990s. They have a decent vocalist and the songs are quite energetic and catchy. The production is okay, nothing that strikes me as dramatic or overly fantastic but it does what it is supposed to. It is an album that more or less offers exactly what you can expect, no real surprises anywhere during this album, even the selection of songs seem made up to a certain specification, possibly to appeal to as wide an audience as possible – I would say that there are no surprises whatsoever.

It is a good album; that is something one cannot argue away. It lacks a little bit creatively but the song material is working well and they push the right button to create music that is hard to dislike. At the same time it is hard to really love as well, it is a very solid heavy metal and it is no more or no less than that really. Good energy and feel, I can imagine that this will work really well on the stage and if these guys are showmen they will really wow the live audience as this feels like music written only for that purpose as it is easy to take in and quickly like. But it is despite that not really memorable or special; it is a good album plain and simple.

More than that isn’t really necessary to state, the album works and I cannot find much to praise or complain over. To me this is a typical album for the middle of our rating scale, it is good and entertaining to listen to but it never really takes off. I think the opening pair of songs is the highlight of the album but there isn’t really that much separating the songs, they are pretty good all the way through and I would think that they make it a great album for those of you who like thrashy heavy- or power metal.

 

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