Darkwell
Moloch
(Massacre Records)
Another band who we haven’t heard anything from in a long time, Austrian Gothic/Doom metallers Darkwell are also back with their first disc in a little over a decade. Seems to be a trend as of late. In any case, most of the bitching I’ve heard on Metal Archives seems to come from reviewers that are upset with the band’s change from their heavier Suspiria sound, to what one of them called, “an uninspired female fronted clone act.” While I can’t deny the similarity to acts like Theatre Of Tragedy, Lacuna Coil or a toned-down The Gathering, there are a couple of things here that I think manage to allow the band to stand out just a little bit more than the tag given to them by some admittedly angry reviewers who have undoubtedly written the band off after the debut. It’s not like Darkwell aren’t trying. Michael Bachler does get a chance to clobber the drums a couple of times on the disc, and Matthias Nussbaum sometimes fires off a couple of pounding riffs, regardless of the fact that the music is now mostly down-tuned and bass heavy. You’ll hear more of Roland Wurzer’s bass licks than anything else on the album aside from returning frontwoman Alexandra Pittracher and the proggy keyboard theatrics from Raphael Lepuschitz. Three of the band’s members also play in an unsigned death/groove act called TrustNo1 which hasn’t put out a record in five years. It all works to confuse me, and I’m kind of curious as to why the decision to revive this project after so many years.
That being noted, the key to this record, like many in it’s class; is catchy-chorus numbers, by which it succeeds most of all. Listeners will enjoy it for the same reason that they’ll enjoy any Goth metal disc of the same caliber and that will secure them some new fans regardless. Pittracher has the tiny voice of an angel, uplifting the entire performance, regardless of how heavy the rest of the guys in the band decide to play their instruments. There are times when they get a little bit heavier than normal and even some backing growls appear on “Bow Down” but these inclusions won’t be enough to capture the attention of extreme metal fans and it’s recommended that you’re at least a fan of this genre before picking this one up. The record is composed fairly well, even though I’m hearing an odd bit of static in the drumming that sounds a bit poorly mastered and I’m fairly curious as to whether this is my digital promo, or if the original disc sounds like that. It is a bit of an annoyance, so let’s hope they cleared this up on the actual release.
The entire listen can be summed up in one sentence. If you’re looking for a style of Gothic metal with effective verse/choral moments as well as engaging keyboards, then you’ll want to pick this one up. Moloch mainly caught my attention due to the fact that it was a bit gutsier than most Goth metal discs these days, and of course Pittracher’s incredible vocal harmonies. If both of these also seem even remotely appealing to you, then you might want to give this one a try. But as for going back to their old sound, you might as well give it up. Darkwell seem to know what kind of band they want to be and only time will tell as to whether they can hold their own among a sea of familiar acts.
