From the bowels of hell or in this case Quebec Canada comes the brutal onslaught of Soul of Darkness who have released their first full length CD called Torments in Withering Existence. This particular region of Canada has been a hot bed for extreme music for quite some time spawning such recent acts as Necronomicon and Kataklysm not to mention the highly influential forefathers of avant / metal Voi Vod in the mid eighties. Soul of Darkness was originally formed in 1998 as a trio and prior to this CD they only other release was an EP called Cry of the Inner Pain in 2001. The band expanded to a quintet for the recording of Torments but now seem to be in the market for a drummer according to their website.
The CD begins with the haunting 3 minute instrumental "The Awakening" before slamming straight into "False Hope", from there the band goes for the throat and does not let go for the next forty minutes as they bulldoze their way through some of the finest black metal riffs and demonic vocals that these shores has ever produced. Hadralios handles the lead vocals while Vilranis takes care of the guitars and 'clean vocals', in fact I think Vilranis and keyboardist Erahkiel are the real cornerstones of the whole Soul of Darkness sound. The keyboards permeate every track and fills out the overall sound which really complements the bands heaviness, it's black metal of a symphonic nature. There seems to be a bit of a prog feel running throughout the CD as some of Vilranis' guitar work and leads seem to be less inspired by Beelezebub as maybe early Genesis, the end section to "The Last Battle" and parts of "Uprising Vengeance" reminded me of the great licks in those early Genesis albums by Anthony Phillips and Steve Hackett. Lyrically much of this CD was written by the ex-member Akhelund so it will be interesting to see who picks up the torch next time around. Torments in Withering Existence is an excellent full length debut and if they are able to at the very least pump out another dark slab of music equal to this, they will be poised to join their black metal brethren at the top of the heap very soon.
Track Listing
1 - The Awakening (Intro)
2 - False Hope
3 - A Thousand Sacrifices
4 - Beyond The Images
5 - Uprising Vengeance
6- An Eternal Gathering
7 - The Last Battle
8 - Fate Upon My Kind
9 - Savior's Salvation
10 - The Wake Of Torments
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