Technical power thrash sounds a decent combination. The final ingredient is the way it’s mixed.
The truth is that I’m struggling to find anything good to say about this album. The second track “Dark Design” sets the scene after an acoustic intro which doesn’t set the scene. An energetic surge is punctuated by a bizarre high-in-the-range refrain. It’s progressive in its meanderings. There’s plenty of widdling and demonstrable flourishes but I couldn’t determine what this was all aiming at. I was mystified. It had to get better than this. After a strange sample “No Death” heads off into prog thrash. The singer strains to sound earnest, or maybe that was his normal voice. Meanwhile intricate melodies go on behind him. It all seemed disjointed as if everyone had turned up for different sessions. The vocalist grumbles on. Not for the last time, I was reminded of Griffin in the style – old school metal with thrash and a similar style of vocals but I couldn’t tell if this band had got to where they wanted to be. What I can tell you is that there’s a lot of posturing. I sense that the members of Dark Design thought there’s something special about this. “Technical power thrash” is certainly what is, as advertised on the proverbial tin, but that doesn’t mean to say that it works.
Here and there a good passage emerges and the guitarist frees himself from the shackles of being progressive or whatever passes for it. The disconnected vocals are made worse by being too wordy and over-dramatic. That was “Abiding Contempt” but whilst “Welcome to Your Doom” started as a thumping old-school song before presenting a different edge, its undoubted technicality seemed to be happening miles away from where I was. Cathedral-like didactics didn’t do anything for it but at least “Welcome to Your Doom” shared the quality of being deep and bordering on sludgy in the final outcome. “I dreamt of the dragon”. Here goes a power metal romp but the vocals didn’t suit it, if they suited anything at all. Even if it had been good, “Dragonmount” changes direction and ploughs on forcefully but there’s just no heart or soul in any of this. I felt frustration. This is just going through metal motions. Oh, and the singer whines on. And so it is again with “Meditations”. By this stage I knew that the lively start would lead to disappointment and it does. The track breaks up into the customary disorganised pattern, with only the comfort of a decent guitar solo. My hopes were raised and dashed once more as “Spice World” suggested a bit of an Eastern riff. Now that’s more interesting. Where did it go? To no-man’s land, that’s where. There went another wasted opportunity. This track was a little bit punchier and heavier than most but given the way this album meanders on like a river, it might as well be just one meaningless track. There’s a long solo but it seems to have no relevance. Nothing has relevance. “Spice World” is typically baffling. I think it was supposed to be epic but it just doesn’t do it. It’s another bits-and-pieces song. Any attempt at drama is foiled by a lack of context for this listener. So all that is left is “Dust in the Wind”. The bar was low by now so I was not surprised to hear a mundane song, offset marginally but obliquely by some technical qualities. It’s not entirely devoid of life or energy but there’s no X Factor here. And like that tv programme, I was glad I didn’t have to listen to any more of this.
Dark Design have been mentioned in the same breath as Death and Toxik. Neither of those are my thing really but they both had their moments. This album was alien to me. It’s ok creating a style or fusing old styles but there has to be some centre. Any marks I award are for technical merit. Beyond that “Prey for the Future” was an exercise in endurance. Based on this particular listener’s experience, it had nothing going for it whatsoever.
(2/10 Andrew Doherty)
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