Darkshine - Ten Years

DARKSHINE - Ten Years (Compilation CD 2006)

Just made a fine discovery! I was searching through the boxes, where I keep some old promo CDs I received ten years or more ago and found a CD of band called Darkshine. What is that? I asked myself, as I had a very small recollection of it. A quick search on Metal Archives and I can see they were a French death / black metal band, not active anymore sadly and the CD I have titled “Ten Years” is sort of compilation with songs from each of the three demos, which Darkshine released between 2000 and 2006. I also found my old review of it, which I was very positive towards the music of Darkshine, so… I simply had to give it a listen and now I am writing some words, so I can recommend you this completely unknown band. I wonder if their demos are anywhere to be found still? I would love to have them.

OK then. “Ten Years” brings us two songs from “Lupus Infernorum” demo 2000, four tracks from excellent “Stigma Diaboli” demo 2004 and a couple of songs from 2006, published I think only on this compilation. The CD starts with these new tracks and well… I must say that they may be the newest material of Darkshine, but I like them least from the whole set! They’re good and solid, slightly harsh death / black metal, with some similarities to Behemoth for example (even the vocals sound similar to Nergal’s), but performed in harsher and more obscure way. There are even some similarities to death metal bands like Morbid Angel, so all in all it’s truly a good stuff, the first song especially. Meanwhile the previous materials sound really different. They’re both have kind of darker atmosphere and stylistically remind me one awesome, but slightly underrated Norwegian act called… Aeternus! Yes! I feel there’s a strong resemblance to the authors of “Beyond the Wandering Moon”, when speaking of the whole atmosphere of the music, particular riffs, its heaviness, tempos, but even the vocals. And that stuff sounds really damn fantastic. I like it a lot! In some parts it sounds also close to Rotting Christ, but that’s just a small impression. All in all, I must say that such tracks like “Sanguis Christi”, “En la Cruz” and the excellent “Vseslav” are really damn good. I wonder then what happened to Darkshine, why they split up, etc. Their website is still active, but it doesn’t give much information. Anyway, I hope that one day I will get a chance to hear Darkshine demos in entirety.

Standout tracks: “Sanguis Christi”, “En la Cruz”, “Vseslav”

Final rate: 70/100