Darkane - The Sinister Supremacy Album Review

Dubbed the “Swedish Melodeath Masters,” Darkane delivers a virtual beating on their newest release, “The Sinister Supremacy.” The album cover art is a Rorschach Test, which was used mostly in the 1960’s to find underlying meaning in a patient’s thought process. Pretty cool stuff for people who like to stare at album, er, CD covers while they listen to the band. 

The album starts off with dark, melodic violins, trance like in state almost. It is a misleading intro to the metalest of metalheads, but the classical concerto introduction sort of fits like unnecessary anesthesia before the skull thumping screaming and guitar riffs. Unnecessary only because while the into is soothing, the rest of the album is heavy as hell and we all love that. 

The title track, which comes in at Track Two pounded my ears into lovely submission. Since there was an intro, I was nervous. In my years of music listening, any album with the title track at the beginning of an album usually means the rest of the recording is sub-par. 

This is not the case with “The Sinister Supremacy.” Each track is heavy as hell. Track four, “The Decline,” also starts off with strings albeit briefly, but turns into a brain melt of thumping drums, thick bass lines and screaming guitar riffs. 

The classical and piano pieces before each song are marvelous. The fact that Darkane stepped out of the typical ‘heavy metal bubble’ and put those in the beginning of some of their songs (sort of Opeth like) took this release to the next level. There are such multi-faceted levels to this album it is definitely a must for any heavy metal collection. 

Finally, if you like Testament, Lamb of God and maybe Chopin, you’ll love Darkane.
 
Check out Darkane at: www.darkane.com and on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/darkane