Heavy Metal Tribune

Demonic Resurrection [INDIA]
The Return to Darkness
2010
Full Length
Symphonic black/death metal

Fans of Sam Dunn's documentary, Global Metal won't be a stranger to this band. Demonic Resurrection's The Return to Darkness is their 3rd full length album, and also the final chapter in their Darkness trilogy.

The new lineup

While The Return to Darkness retains the main basis that Demonic Resurrection's music has always been built upon, the first thing that will most likely strike fans is the slight shift in the music style of the band. Sahil "The Demonstealer" delivers his vocals in a throaty, death metal manner, instead of the familiar higher pitched black metal vocals in the previous album and EP. Another notable change in musical direction is in the instruments, with lesser black metal style trem-picking being replaced with more death metal riffage and the inclusion of a lot more blast beats (courtesy of new drummer, Viru). Keyboards remain a key feature in the music, constantly maintaining the atmosphere and ambience of the music. Clean vocals are much more polished compared to the previous records, with Sahil taking over clean vocal duties as well, compared to the previous album, where a sessionist was recruited.

The Return to Darkness box-set

Right from the introduction instrumental track "Between Infinity and Oblivion", The Return to Darkness brings the listener on an interesting ride in a fantasy world. The music manages to translate and let the listener feel the emotions that the protagonist is feeling, the sadness (the ballad-ish intro of Lord of Pestilence), despair (A Tragedy Befallen, especially with the utilisation of clean vocals and slow clean guitar work) and anger (The Unrelenting Surge of Vengeance).

Lyrics-wise, if you are familiar with Demonic Resurrection's previous works, this album will not let you down, this being the last chapter of the Darkness trilogy, with lyrics themed around darkness, war and sadness. However, if this is your first record from Demonic Resurrection, you might be left confused as to what is going on.

The production of this record is very polished, proving nay-sayers of Asian metal bands that Asian bands can come up with good production quality as well.

A music video of The Unreleting Surge of Vengeance is available on their MySpace page and YouTube.

Now that the Darkness trilogy has ended, we wonder what Demonic Resurrection will come up with next?

Recommended to fans of melodic and symphonic black or death metal. Demonic Resurrection's previous EP, Beyond the Darkness, is available for download. Check out their MySpace page for more information.

©2010 Heavy Metal Tribune | Hong Rui