Culminating a consistent year for Belgium label Immortal Frost Productions they turn to homegrown talent from West Flanders in the form of debut album by Darkest Mind. This trio clearly wear their hearts on their sleeves and worship at the font of melodic Swedish sounding black metal, clues were found in their 2015 EP ‘Break The Circle’ which included a cover of Dissection classic ‘The Somberlain.’ Here they expand upon things with seven frosty, atmospheric tracks sounding like they could easily have been forged from the early 90’s.

Intricate guitar work and hoary growls unfold as they stomp like icy giants into opener ‘Shadow Of Life,’ quickly romping off and boosting the aggression with flurries of cold steel and speed. Vocalist Yuri D, who also provides half the guitars along with bass here, juggles his parts amidst suitably gurgling deathly vocals as the melodicism expands with groove and heft. It’s quite accessible as the melodies thornily prick the senses and entwine themselves around the listener, dredging up memories spent listening to the likes of Lord Belial, Sacramentum and Naglfar on a frigid dark night. With the title track they prove that despite harmonies being an important element they are not opposed to being downright vicious with it and at times this does get pretty intense as per the aforementioned latter band’s Sheol opus. So too do they occasionally hark back to their landmark debut Vittra with some of those olden folk motifs so loved by the Gothenburg clans having me fondly reminiscing my first-time hearing In Flames Lunar Strain and wondering how they got it so wrong developing into a vapid stadium rock band along the way. Nostalgia is a double-edged sword and the intermediate midpoint instrumental in such a style here ‘Awakened in the Cold Winter Eternal’ really is going to have you yearning for times before the light and the classics of the age.

Does it matter that it is a band not from Sweden doing this, could it be considered plagiaristic, hero-worship? Perhaps, but considering the fact that here Darkest Mind prove to adopt the style so damn well makes it a bit of a moot point. Development is not always a necessity and repeated plays of ‘Oracle Of Death’ have had me losing myself in the instrumental intricacies and feeling totally revived by the bursts of bruising speed on display. All that’s missing is a Sony Walkman cassette player which was used on long walks to devour the original albums that have been fondly reminisced on by this. The doomy and apocalyptic sounding ‘The Indomitable Decay’ festers and spreads contagion with in a particularly menacing fashion as the penultimate number and really gets under the skin. As for the final assault, the epic 10 minute ‘Queen of Poison and Lust,’ expect the glory days of Dissection themselves to be invoked. This sounds like a classic in every sense and even if Darkest Mind cannot be looked upon as the most original band in the world, they have delivered a belter of an album here!

(8/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/darkestmindband

https://digital.immortalfrostproductions.com/album/oracle-of-death