Just a few weeks ago, I received Wacken’s “Armageddon over Wacken” and I heard Dark Age for the first time. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. I recently found their new record in my mailbox and after hearing their live song from their previous album, I was rather curious what this album would bring me.

,,Dark Age’’ is a band labeled as ‘dark metal’, a category I am not very familiar with. Some other bands that fit in the same musical atmosphere are for instance Sentenced or Dark At Dawn. What I hear from this CD, ‘dark metal’ is very wide-ranging, it mainly sounds like melodic death metal, leaning towards melancholic moods.

Although I am not exactly crazy about death metal and the likes, this album is – even for me – enjoyable to listen too. Dark Age offers more than just the power, the growls and gloomy lyrics. In fact, certain tracks are now stuck in my head after I’ve listened to this album a few times.

This fifth Dark Age album isn’t just another ‘Dark Age album’. You can hear they improved their skills and techniques since The Fall and Insurrection. Next to their own talent, you will also hear Johan Edlund, Tiamat’s vocalist, on a few tracks, like “Dare To Collapse” which is maybe the strongest track together with the first track “Fix The Focus”.

The band members really know how to set up a disc full of variation; the songs go from raw growls to an acoustic ballad called “My Own Darkness”, and back to catchy death metal lines. And that’s what makes this record interesting for a wide audience, not only melodic death metal fans, but also many metal heads among us who enjoy a loud pile of energy once in a while will like this album.

The only criticism I have to add is that this album has been ‘over-finished’. What I mean to say is that the songs are just a little too neat, too tight. I guess this has to do with the modern metal times we’re in at the moment, everyone aims at total perfection – of course – but the blood and sweat are gone nowadays.

New genres are being formed, like the genre ‘dark metal’ many of us have never heard of. In my opinion, all that isn’t necessary, but within the boundaries of this so-called ‘dark metal’ they do their job very well! Although to me, they would have done just as well or even better labeling their selves “melodic death metal” without all the extras.