THE RETURN TO DARKNESS

Although the merits of globalization could be discussed and argued to death, one certainly positive thing it has brought is a wave of new metal from parts of the world that have not witnessed it before. India has been one of the biggest up-and-comers for heavy metal, with a youthful generation yearning to adopt some of the Western traditions into their own and find their own way. One of the better known Indian metal acts is Demonic Resurrection, a band who has largely introduced me to what the Indian metal scene is all about. 'The Return To Darkness' is the third album by these guys, although it is the first one with a truly professional sound. Demonic Resurrection indicates to me that this young scene still has some growing to do, but there is no doubt that it will spawn some of the greatest metal in coming years.

This particular band is best described as playing extreme metal. That is, I am hearing influences pulled in from both death metal, and symphonic black metal. Demonic Resurrection has already had a couple of albums with which to consolidate a certain sound of theirs, and while 'The Return To Darkness' is an album not all too different from its Western counterparts, the evident influences come together to make a pretty convincing blend. I am hearing Dimmu Borgir, Morbid Angel, Opeth, and even Trivium coming together into Demonic Resurrection's sound, and as one, it sounds quite impressive. The technically slick riffs here are backed by strong drums, and songwriting that manages to nicely balance melody with heaviness. Melody is something that Demonic Resurrection does very well, more specifically the way the band incorporates it into their music. The riffs here are sometimes quite aggressive, but towards the 'chorus' segments of the songwriting, the guitars gear their aim towards creating memorable musical lines.

There are even clean vocals here, and this is arguably where their Indian heritage shines through most. Demonic Resurrection are a very Western-styled extreme metal band, generally skirting away from the sort of traditional influences that other non-West bands like Orphaned Land are defined by. The growls on this album sound more or less like they could have been plucked from the United States or anywhere, but the clean vocals show a fairly noticeable Indian accent coming through Demonstealer's voice, in what sounds like an auto-tune, no less. If I had heard the clean vocal segments of Demonic Resurrection's music described this way, I would not have been too excited, but these moments in the music do work from the keen sense of melody. After the barrage of heavy riffs and growls that come through as well, it is a nice refreshing change to hear parts of the songwriting that focus on something other than extremity.

The melodic switches are a very strong element of the music, although Demonic Resurrection still sounds like they need a little more variety in the music. The album is over an hour long, and while Demonic Resurrection play their music and style very well, the fairly static melodic death metal sound doesn't justify the length. I had the feeling that the album should end, well before it actually did, and it does take away from the overall impact to hear an album play on fifteen minutes longer than it should have. The production is quite polished, although a little dry for my tastes, but it shows a definite improvement over what Demonic Resurrection has done in the past. Really, I have found myself excited to hear a band coming from such a different part of the world, and I get the sense that Demonic Resurrection is only a vanguard for a wave of Indian metal to come in the near future. The cultural differences aside, 'The Return To Darkness' is a very good piece of extreme metal, heritage regardless, although it does not quite branch out past its influences.

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