Dark Angel - Darkness Descends (1986)

I'm considering this as the band's "one hit wonder", sure, the other albums had it's moments but this one is...well, at a completely different level. The first albums they released was We Have Arrived, which was a lot softer than Darkness Descends and weren't really a full-length either. They followed this album up with two albums were they went in a more technical direction. Like I said, I like their other albums, but this one is the best for sure.

The production on this one is very raw, not black metal-raw, but raw in a good way. The singer shifts between singing very dark and more falsetto-like. All fine with guitar and bass. Also the drums are very fast and it's Gene Hoglan handling them so you shouldn't be too disappointed. The album starts off with the title-track. While it has some awesome riffs I have always considered it more lyrically appealing. For example, the chorus is really, really classic stuff.

The Burning of Sodom could be my personal favourite on the album even if it would be hard to choose one. The song is probably the fastest on this record (and one of the fastest in the world) and the Don Doty's scream on the beginning of the song is not that easy to beat.Not much to say about Hunger of the Undead, but if you liked to previous songs you'll like this. A really good thrasher.

What comes next is Merciless Death which is my favorite along The Burning of Sodom. The song starts off with a creepy bass intro and then all hell breaks loose. The most vocally flipped-out song on the album. Death Is Certain (Life Is Not) is another classic but what follows is the weakest spot on the album, Black Prophecies, which is the longest song on the album and also the slowest. It’s an ok song but doesn’t live up the Dark Angel-standards, nothing which really grabs me in it. The song was a sign of what would come later in their more technical albums. But Perish in Flames ends the album in the good old way, fast and brutal!

To sum this up this stands as one of the best (if not the best) thrash albums of all time, it DEFINES thrash metal actually, so if you like bands like Slayer (Reign In Blood-era) and Morbid Saint and haven’t heard this one yet by some reason, be sure to pick it up!

95/100

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