Dark Angel
Darkness Descends

Release Date: 1986 | Tracklist

On paper, thrash metal should be the definitive sub-genre of metal. I mean, your stereotypical band has pretty much everything the musical style promotes. Speed. Heaviness. Aggression. Dark lyrics. Sinister imagery. Technical song structures. It's extreme, yet still somewhat accessible. It should be one hell of a listen for anyone who considers themselves a metalhead. But somewhere, somehow, something went wrong, and instead of a sub-genre in which all the core elements of metal are united in a fun, interesting manner, we got a boring, over-saturated scene with little room for progression or innovation. Off the top of my head, no band represents such notions as well as America's Dark Angel does. Through their brief, yet deceptively productive career, they've managed to combine all the clichés of thrash metal into a series of highly acclaimed, but extremely overrated albums. Their 1986 offering, Darkness Descends, is often considered their opus and a thrash classic and while this may be true, the record has some massive holes which just drag it down.

Often considered part of the so called "unholy trinity" of 1986, along with Kreator's Pleasure to Kill and Slayer's Reign in Blood, Darkness Descends relies on two very important elements. Any guesses? If speed and aggression immediately came to mind, then you'd be right. However, with their sophomore effort, Dark Angel doesn't just rely on said characteristics. It blatantly abuses them. Aside from a few short moments in the title track and an admittedly enjoyable bass intro at the beginning of Merciless Death, nearly the entire album follows one specific tempo (blazing fast, of course) and makes use of one riff. It's more repetitive than a DragonForce album (a fairly amazing feat itself), and not in a good way. From the opening seconds of Darkness Descends to the last couple notes of Perish in Flames, the album is virtually hookless and unmemorable. The solos are generic and unengaging. Legendary extreme metal drummer Gene Hoglan's performance may be fairly impressive from a thrash metal standpoint, yet despite being the most recognizable instrument in the mix, it fails to enhance the listening experience in any way. Basically, the song writing is very dull and underdeveloped (forsaken, perhaps?), leaving the individual talents of each musician rather useless.

After the whole song writing issue, the next major problem with Darkness Descends is the production. Now I know Dark Angel was not the most popular band during the recording of this release and their studio budget was likely rather slim, but the production values on the record are nothing short of horrid. The riffs are nearly indistinguishable partly due to the irksome buzz which plagues Eric Meyer and Jim Durkin's guitars. Hoglan's drumming is far too high in the mix and sounds both very irritating and very distracting. The vocal efforts as well are far too loud in comparison with the guitars and bass and Don Doty's lack of, well, talent essentially cripples the album's songs as Doty is a rather large part of them. Essentially, Doty is the third major drawback on Darkness Descends, and as his performance plays a large enough role in the music, to label this as the final nail in the coffin wouldn't be too much of a fallacy. Popular thrash vocalists such as James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine, and Tom Araya take quite a lot of heat for being mediocre at best singers (and rightfully so), but when compared to the likes of Don Doty their names might as well be Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson, or Geoff Tate. As displayed in the likes of Perish in Flames, Death is Certain (Life is Not), and the title track, Doty can not hold a tune…at all. He shrieks, shouts, and screams his way through the seven track album and he sounds just as atrocious every other extreme thrash vocalist at the time. But then again, he does sound evil, so that must make him good right?

I suppose I can see why some thrash fans could like Darkness Descends. It combines elements held dearly by the genre into a brief 7 song album. Dark Angel's sophomore effort certainly is fast, evil, brutal, underground, unmelodic, raw, and whatnot, but despite this they fail to craft an album worth listening to. Be it through tedious, immature song writing, the stupid lyrics, or the lousy production, the band sounds a lot more like a group of 15 year old kids trying to be brutal and evil. Perhaps the lone positive aspect of the album is that at only 35 minutes it is quite short. Of course, because of the repetition, rehashing, and recycling of the record's material over and over again, the album does feel as though it is twice as long as it actually is, but at least you will only lose a half hour of your day. Right? Overall, Darkness Descends is a very poor effort from a band often proclaimed to be one of the metal underground's greatest acts. Well, if it truly is than that certainly says a lot about the thrash scene of the time. Don't waste your time. Seriously.

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