‘Process of rebirth, Death blows in reverse, Old wounds finally mend, Despair comes to an end’ (Kill The Pain)

Hailing from Los Angeles, and featuring members of Tozcos and Personal Damage, The Dark return with a full-length follow-up to their 2018 debut EP, Demons.  The band continue to forge an intriguing blend of mid-paced Japanese hardcore and the galloping riffage of early 1980s’ proto-thrash metal and, even at times, the sleazier end of heavy metal from the same period.  And while you might expect this to be overlain with a demonic growl, the vocals are in fact somewhat cleaner, leaning into a gruff, sometimes melodic, occasionally grunted, death rock delivery.

The result is an album of intriguing nuance, a restrained, precisely executed palette that evokes a bleakly uneasy atmosphere.  The first four tracks are, in fact, reworked versions of the same songs from the band’s 2016 demo, and as strong as these are, it is, perhaps, with the newer material that The Dark really begin to flex their muscles from the darkly foreboding riff that defines The Badge And The Gun and the strangely captivating chorus of the scuzzy Heartless, to the surging Nightmare and, my personal favourite, the languidly unfurling Face In The Mirror.

The album’s lyrical focus spans both the directly social in terms of police violence (The Badge And The Gun) and the criminalisation of poverty (Dragged To Hell), and more darkly allusive explorations of the mental attrition of modern life (Cursed) and grief (Sinking Into Madness), before ending on a more optimistic hope for renewal (Kill The Pain).