CD Reviews

Starting as they mean to go on, the CD opens with a combination of blast beats and roaring guitars to set a truly claustrophobic mood as the band unleash their sonic war on the listener.

This blazingly intense style continues throughout the record as the band merge various aspects of metal, the main influences they display are from the extreme genres of death and black metal. Taking most of their sound from the brutal beatdowns pioneered by Floridian bands such as Death and Deicide, but, their lyrical style, atmospheric nature and Phil's guttural vocal attack comes from the colder climes of Norwegian black metal groups like Emperor they definitely add a new level to the often staid sound of the 'heavier than thou' extreme metal acts.

What really stands out is the way the band temper their extreme sound at points without compromising their heaviness through the use of old school thrash riffs and odd Iron Maiden inspired moments. Through this though the lightest thing I could possibly compare Darker Shores to is still Master of Puppets era Metallica.

Darker Shores in action.

While I obsess slightly over the stylistic vision of the bands sound, I don't want this to detract from the three member's musical performance as all are top notch. The real highlight for me comes in the form of Daz's drumming which sounds like he must have at least four legs and six arms to make that kind of noise from a drum kit.

The drumming is then underpinned by Bob's bass which, while not as pronounced on record as when I have seen the band live, still makes its presence felt. Especially in several brief Cliff Burton aping solo sections.

Over this comes the riff machine of Phil's guitar and the vocal assault that makes one think of a demon being dragged back to Hell with a diabolical fist clenched around it’s throat.

Overall 'Majestically Terrifying' is a terrific achievement of heaviness and sonic claustrophobia, my one criticism of it would have to be the songs seem to get lost in one another and at times even become repetitive. However, giving the band the benefit of the doubt, I put that down to my untrained ear on records of such extremity as the bands performance on this disc is top level and provides a new direction and expansion of locally produced music available in Guernsey.