‘Darkness Devour’ launches out of the blocks akin to a supercharged Usain Bolt. These Norwegians, Flukt, are on a mission and have returned to spawn their first full-length effort since their inception in 2014.
The vocals from A.O are vindictive and venomous. They command the proceedings and inject a dose of spite with every lyric that is cemented into the release.
‘Serpent’ opens the album and is a malevolent and dirty opener. The sound is raw and battering. A.O unleashes a soul shredding scream and then backs this up with mature and multi layered cries and shouts. Mid song the tempo lessens off and an element of melody is added to the down tuned guitars and well positioned drum work from F.H
Sometimes it’s hard to dissect an album, and review each track on its own merit, highlighting and picking out the individual components, and this is the case on this one. Each track morphs into the next without much deviation or separation from its siblings. However, ‘Darkness Devour’ is all out Norwegian black metal, raw and vitriolic, so much so that each track doesn’t stand as an obvious individual affair, they all tread the same path and all 8 tracks carve you open to caustic and passionate black metal. S.E provides the pounding bass line throughout and this is accompanied by some vicious and riotous drum work from F.H’s kit.
By the time the resounding chords of ‘Trespass The Devils Playground’, and the 34 minutes of ‘Darkness Devour’ has spat you back out again, you will feel battered and bruised beyond belief. If you like your black metal at the most extreme end of the spectrum then this is for you, if you are of a slightly more delicate disposition, then you really should approach with caution
(7/10 Phil Pountney)
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