Imagine this: you’re in the crowd at a gig, the music starts and it’s great. The kind of music you can really headbang to. Everyone is having a great time, people are moshing, crowd surfing, and the band has an amazing stage presence. But then you look around, and you realize that everyone at the show looks either like a 14 year old or an 80s metal fan. That’s how I feel about Dark Embrace’s new record Dark Heavy metal. Nothing about this album is bad – the guitar riffs are fun, the piano melodies are harmonious, the drums are great, the vocals, while sounding different to what I’m used to are a refreshing take on metal vocals that I don’t hear particularly often. It’s an extremely high voice, for metal at least. But the lyrics are really very corny.
Dark Heavy Metal is a title seemingly so generic and forgettable that it pulls the reverse effect and is more memorable by making you confused as to why anyone would choose that as an album name. Now, of course the title of an album isn’t actually going to reflect the content of the music but then the first track of the album is also called “Dark Heavy Metal.” The lyrics sound like they could have been written by a teenager who is mad at their parents because they think that all metal is from the devil. Lyrics like “Listen to me, this is what we scream, Emotions from our dark hearts, Made of steel” and “We rock to be free, We’re living our way, Remember we are dark heavy metal.” There are other examples of this corniness on the album as well, with one of the songs even being called “Metal is Religion.” I think they take themselves a bit too seriously, which reflects somewhat in the music itself. It is rather symphonic at parts, and it seems like most of the tracks on the album are trying to make themselves the new anthem of metal. All the music sounds big and grand, but that kind of makes the album blend into itself somewhat.
Despite all of this, the album is extremely fun. Yes, it is trite in places but that adds to the charm of it. I would totally be in love with this album if I were a few years younger. The whole album oozes passion, and you can tell that the band really care about the music. This is the kind of band that I would love to see live, I can tell just from the music that they have some amazing gigs. If you can look past the cliché and lyrics that sound like they were written by a 12 year old, you’ll find a really fun album that you might be listening to for years to come.
(7/10 Dexter Grahame)
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