Into Darkness - Into Darkness

INTO DARKNESS - Into Darkness (HELLTHRASHER - CD 2013)

Another killer Italian death metal band? Fuck! What happened to this country that all of a sudden within two or three years it spawned so many really cool old styled death metal hordes, while prior to that there was only very few, old bands, which I liked – like Bulldozer, Mortuary Drape, Horrid and Necrodeath – and nothing else managed to catch my attention?! I will not complain on that, as surely it is a good and positive thing, as bands like Undead Creep, Eroded, Profanal have been shredding mercilessly and Into Darkness joins their ranks… and who knows, if I like them even more than all those just mentioned bands? I mean, surely Undead Creep is awesome in their Swedish death metal slaughter and Profanal is also excellent at what they do… but Into Darkness may be the most obscure and evil sounding of all these bands and they really made my ears bleed with the material released under the title “Into Darkness”… which actually have been released as a demo first, but Hellthrasher found it as worthy being released professionally on CD, which they finally did (while Iron Bonehead will take care of the vinyl version – a must to have!).

I must admit that even before I have heard any music from Into Darkness I thought that a band with such moniker can mean one thing – that they can take some influence from the almighty gods of doomy death metal, Winter! They did the “Into Darkness” LP back in 1990 and really have shred to pieces with it. Into Darkness surely has many influences from doom death metal in their music, but I guess the origins of it lies slightly somewhere else, mainly in few American bands – Incantation and Derketa (whose last album “Goddess of Death” I still seek for; any help there?) and some European legends: Asphyx (oh yes!), Pentacle and Bolt Thrower, with some additional influence from Gorefest’s debut LP and a bit of early Swedish and Finnish death metal scene. Sounds promising? It surely fuckin does! This demo is truly excellent. First of all, I love its production, which is heavy, brutal, but so powerful that every guitar riff sounds like played in the chamber or catacomb, bringing forth lethal energy and smell of putrid!

But it wouldn’t be so effective, if Into Darkness didn’t manage to find the POWER OF RIFF! Riff must be killer, must be catchy and brutal, but combined with the dark, evil atmosphere and sometimes even with some more harmonic passages… and that’s exactly what I have found on “Into Darkness”. Amazing riffs, well composed, arranged and executed songs and fantastic vocals of Doomed Warrior. And in this kind of music this demo seems like a perfect stuff, comparable to the classic albums! Really, I mean it… just as much as I worship Asphyx or Bolt Thrower, I sincerely do the same now with this new band, so badly their music has massacred me. Ears are bleeding and the brain is boiling, the guts are ripped and the body is dismembered… A lovely musical torture! Every song on “Into Darkness” sounds like a classic tune to me, I like every aspect of them and often catch myself thinking “wow, is it new Asphyx album or are these Italians really so bloody good????”. Yes, they are and hit my musical G-point with their music perfectly, as this is exactly what I like most! Right from the amazing first song I am impressed… that title track is just amazing, starting a bit like “The Rack”, with killer doomy riff, then there’s a melodic theme and a guitar solo, which some mindreader could have taken directly from Eric Daniels’ or Paul Baayens’ head. The song is wonderfully varied and basically you’ll find here the essence of Into Darkness and because it lasts for almost 9 minutes then you can prepare yourself for many attractions – massively heavy, brutal doomy riffs, some faster parts and those harmonies here and there… plus deep, raspy vocal of Doomed Warrior… what an excellent effort. And the following songs are equally good, with the same, simple and classic recipe – to play killer riffs, create the evil atmosphere and fuck everything else.

Only four tracks, but they last for 25 minutes, so there’s a good portion of excellent doom / death metal to find on this CD. I definitely recommend you getting it, especially if you’re into the bands I mentioned above, especially Asphyx. And also if you like when so good looking women play your favourite tunes… as let’s be honest, Doomer Warrior looks fantastic and growls like a beast, how cannot I love her hehe???!!! Just don’t show it to my wife he he! I’m even more impressed when I see that she’s only 20 years old. Ha, back in the old days Nuclear Death, Derketa and Mythic have impressing everyone, now it is time for Into Darkness!

Final rate: 95/100