DARKANE EXPANDING SENSES
Nuclear Blast - 2002
By Rodrigo Escandon
I will be honest here and say that when I first received this album, I left it sitting there for about a week because I dreaded the day that I would have to put in in my stereo and finally listen to it. I say this because I absolutely disliked Darkanes last album Insanity. While I appreciated the fact that the musicians in the band were extremely talented, especially drummer Peter Wildoer, I just could not get into the album. It did not help matters that I the singing by Andreas Sydow was something that was just not very pleasant to my ears.
Ah but how quickly can preconceptions change because by the end of my first listen to Expanding Senses, I was completely taken back out of how great this album is. Many subsequent listens later and that opinion has not changed at all, instead my general feelings and enjoyment of this album seems to grow with each repeated listen.
This time around the music is not as chaotic and over the place like Insanity was. It is definitely more structured yet the power present in that album is maintained. The example of this point would be that Peters drumming is more controlled while still being very technical and powerful and he is quickly becoming one of my favorite drummers. The guitar playing by Christofer and Klas is excellent with a myriad amount of riffs and leads to keep you entertained and guessing what they will do with each listen. I swear that there are times that I feel that somehow the riffs will change, I can only imagine how Darkane is as a live band. Finally, the singing by Andreas to my taste has improved 100%. He mostly uses a hoarse clean voice while at times going into a more melodic direction as well as using an aggressive death metal style voice. With everything about the band being perfect, that has made the nine songs in Expanding Senses to be varied, unique and I honestly can not pick a favorite.
Chaos vs, Order is an excellent song with its many tempo changes as well as it features the first singer of the band Lawrence Mackroy performing a duet with Andreas. Innocence Gone is the first song of the album and it gets your heart racing with its high enery. Solitary Confinement has Andreas using his amazing range with all the different styles I mentioned earlier. The tempo of the song is extremely fast and the way if moves into different directions with the band not missing a beat is simply beautiful. Imaginary Entity probably features my favorite guitar solos of the album as well as having the best singing in a chorus in the album. Violence from Within is unique in the use of more guitar melodies being used as well as for the acoustic guitar section for the last minute.
What else can I say about this excellent album except that if you had not guessed it already Expanding Senses is without a doubt one of the best releases of this year.
Nuclear Blast Website
Darkane Official Website
Nuclear Blast - 2002
By Rodrigo Escandon
I will be honest here and say that when I first received this album, I left it sitting there for about a week because I dreaded the day that I would have to put in in my stereo and finally listen to it. I say this because I absolutely disliked Darkanes last album Insanity. While I appreciated the fact that the musicians in the band were extremely talented, especially drummer Peter Wildoer, I just could not get into the album. It did not help matters that I the singing by Andreas Sydow was something that was just not very pleasant to my ears.
Ah but how quickly can preconceptions change because by the end of my first listen to Expanding Senses, I was completely taken back out of how great this album is. Many subsequent listens later and that opinion has not changed at all, instead my general feelings and enjoyment of this album seems to grow with each repeated listen.
This time around the music is not as chaotic and over the place like Insanity was. It is definitely more structured yet the power present in that album is maintained. The example of this point would be that Peters drumming is more controlled while still being very technical and powerful and he is quickly becoming one of my favorite drummers. The guitar playing by Christofer and Klas is excellent with a myriad amount of riffs and leads to keep you entertained and guessing what they will do with each listen. I swear that there are times that I feel that somehow the riffs will change, I can only imagine how Darkane is as a live band. Finally, the singing by Andreas to my taste has improved 100%. He mostly uses a hoarse clean voice while at times going into a more melodic direction as well as using an aggressive death metal style voice. With everything about the band being perfect, that has made the nine songs in Expanding Senses to be varied, unique and I honestly can not pick a favorite.
Chaos vs, Order is an excellent song with its many tempo changes as well as it features the first singer of the band Lawrence Mackroy performing a duet with Andreas. Innocence Gone is the first song of the album and it gets your heart racing with its high enery. Solitary Confinement has Andreas using his amazing range with all the different styles I mentioned earlier. The tempo of the song is extremely fast and the way if moves into different directions with the band not missing a beat is simply beautiful. Imaginary Entity probably features my favorite guitar solos of the album as well as having the best singing in a chorus in the album. Violence from Within is unique in the use of more guitar melodies being used as well as for the acoustic guitar section for the last minute.
What else can I say about this excellent album except that if you had not guessed it already Expanding Senses is without a doubt one of the best releases of this year.
Nuclear Blast Website
Darkane Official Website
