DARK MILLENNIUM

Stylistically the material on "Acid River" continues in the rather unique progressive death/doom metal style which Dark Millennium have produced since their comeback. It´s adventurous, progressive, and often darkly melodic death/doom with omnipresent use of atmosphere enhancing keyboards/synths, melancholic guitar leads, heavy riffs, and Christian Mertens expressive and aggressive growling vocals in front. He is probably an aquired taste, but personally I think his voice and singing style are quite brilliant and certainly unique.

The album features seven tracks which are all 7 minutes long (give or take), which is a bit of an oddity really. It´s not something I noticed before I had a closer look at the tracklist, but I´m sure it must be deliberate. I can´t figure out why though, but rest assured that all tracks can easily handle a 7 minutes long playing time. It´s not that the tracks feature complex playing or overtly progressive structures, but they all build and go through various sections, which make them interesting throughout. The sound production is clear and detailed, but still heavy and raw enough for the album not to sound too polished. It´s a sound which suits the atmosphere and heaviness of the material.

Upon conclusion "Acid River" is another quality release by Dark Millennium. It doesn´t quite reach the mysterious and creative peaks of "Ashore the Celestial Burden" (1992), but for a 2022 release by a reunited death/doom metal act from the early 90s, it´s still quite the adventurous and intriguing album release and a 3.5 star (70%) is fully deserved (and that rating is maybe a bit too low).

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

With an original four year run, DARK MILLENNIUM has now lasted six years thus outlasting its original existence. ACID RIVER is the band's latest effort and features founding members Michael Burmann (guitars), Hilton Theissen (guitars, vocals, keyboards) and vocalist Christian Mertens. The newer members include bassist Gerold Kulenz who has been with the band since the 2016 comeback album "Midnight In The Void" and drummer Andre Schaltenberg who joined on for the band's last release "Where Oceans Collide" which came out four years ago in 2018. The band has always been known for its highly unusual experimental approaches in the world of death doom metal and luckily none of that quirky charm has dissipated one iota after all these years.

ACID RIVER is a throwback to the early 90s when the world of death metal and death doom metal were a free for all and bands were experimenting in myriad directions. So intent was DARK MILLENNIUM to retain their classic era sound that the members opted to record using their original guitars, amps and drums with all recording done on analog. The number 7 is the name of the game here. There are seven tracks which are each around seven minutes long and harken back to the band's classic era that led to two albums before a long hiatus. The band has perfectly retained all the idiosyncratic charm of off-kilter guitar riffs that alternate between energetic death'n'roll and old school death metal to oozing doom dread. What sets this album apart from what came before is the heightened use of keyboards which add a psychedelic element more in the vein of contemporary bands like Hail Spirit Noir.

Still on board are the unique vocal extremities of Christian Mertens who has that same sort of Ronnie James Dio of death metal approach that sounds a lot like Death's Chuck Schuldiner. ACID RIVER is therefore a mix of classic DARK MILLENNIUM with a bit more emphasis on the psychedelic metal scene that mixes the catchy death'n'roll grooves with syncopated keyboard stabs and icy atmospheres. Tracks like "Vessel" add a bit of Middle Eastern musical charm to its viscous rampage and even though the band has never been the heaviest in terms of brash guitar bombast and rampaging speed, the band excels at the many curve balls it throws in terms of taking you to a place you weren't expected. These progressive touches are very organic though and never feel forced. This band delivers a very exotic and eccentric musical style that doesn't quite sound like death metal, doom metal or any other genre exactly.

As far as capturing the spirit of the band's original run, DARK MILLENNIUM passes with flying colors. ACID RIVER is more than a worthy edition to the band's woefully short list of releases but i'm thrilled that this band has resurrected its undeniably unique style because the slow creeping grooves accentuated by faster passages and the brilliance of Mertens' creepy vocal style deliver the perfect recipe of classic metal madness that made the early 90s so memorable. Unlike many death metal bands that are all about playing as fast and loud as possible DARK MILLENNIUM displays an interesting array of dynamics and focuses on minor chord melodic constructs that are both pleasing and creepy at the same time. All in all ACID RIVER is a strong addition to the DM canon and one that i will be returning to often.

"Midnight in the Void (2016)" was an independent release and it featured Dark Millennium shooting in many musical directions and although the quality of their output was generally high, the album was a bit inconsistent in style and also a bit too long for its own good (70 minutes long). It seems like the band have felt the same way about the album, as "Where Oceans Collide" is about 20 minutes shorter than its predecessor, and predominantly features shorter and more consistent in style tracks. The music style is progressive death/doom but Dark Millennium have their own distinct sound, and death/doom may not be the most correct label to put on their music, although some of the core elements of the band´s sound come from that style of music. There is one exception on the album, and that is the 11:44 minutes long closing track "Across Oceans of Souls", which is a classical music composition played on keyboards/piano.

Lead vocalist Christian Mertens has a raw snarling vocal style, which is quite intense and convincing, and the musicianship is generally on a high level on all posts. The sound production is professional and pretty well sounding too, so "Where Oceans Collide" is a good quality release on most parameters. The songwriting is consistent in quality, but it´s generally not a release featuring many standout tracks and upon conclusion "Where Oceans Collide" seldom reaches excellence although it is overall a decent release. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

The death metal elements have returned on "Midnight in the Void", as lead vocalist Christian Mertens again treats the listener to his raw yet intelligible snarling vocals. He has the ability to sound both aggressive and desperate at the same time, and he is actually quite the unique singer. While he is probably the greatest asset here because of his incredible voice and delivery, he is unfortunately also the biggest downfall, because of the often badly written lyrics, which often border and sometimes enter cringe worthy territory. I hate to come down on him like this, being a second language English speaker myself, but I´m sure a little translation help/help understanding the English language could have made a major difference.

The instrumental part of the music is quite eclectic, and while there are atmospheric doom/death sections on the album, Dark Millennium are far from being a standard act in that genre. Some tracks are progressive in nature featuring adventurous song structures and odd musical ideas. The most obvious example is of course the 17:25 minutes long closing track "From a Thousand Years of Yore", but most tracks feature unconventional musical ideas. Take for example the funky guitars on "Dressed for Suicide", and you just know this is not your everyday doom/death metal album release.

"Midnight in the Void" features a powerful, detailed, and clear sounding production, which suits the material well, and upon conclusion "Midnight in the Void" is a welcome comeback for Dark Millennium. It´s an interesting release and features many great musical moments, but it´s not a perfect release, and there are less remarkable tracks and sections on the album too. At 70:21 minutes it´s also a bit too long for its own good, and my attention begins to wander at some points during the playing time. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is still deserved though and to the more musically adventurous listeners, they can probably add a half star to that rating.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

Instead we´re treated to an adventurous and occasionally gothic take on progressive metal with a few nods towards thrash and doom metal. The atmosphere is dark, melancholic, and at times even alien, as if the band have visited places other people don´t dare to, and have found inspiration in that. Some tracks are not as complex as others, but there are some very progressive structured tracks on the album. The best example os probably the 9:45 minutes long "Brotherhood Sleep... Back to Treasureland".

The musicianship are on a high level, even though lead vocalist Christian Mertens is probably an aquired taste. He sometimes sound a bit out of tune, and his vocal lines are not that memorable and generally not very melodic. He sounds a bit strained when he does his more raw vocal parts too, and considering how strong his growling vocals were on the debut album, it´s a bit of a mystery why he would chose to sing in a vocal style like this on "Diana Read Peace". Development is almost always a positive, but in this case it´s a step down the quality ladder.

"Diana Read Peace" is a relatively well produced album, and as mentioned especially the instrumental part of the music is very well delivered, but the adventurous songwriting is sometimes a bit too adventurous for it´s own good, and sometimes it feels like Dark Millennium had a thousand individual ideas for each track, and some parts and transitions between parts therefore come off as disjointed from the rest of the track.

So upon conclusion "Diana Read Peace" is an album that leaves me a bit biased as I hail the adventurous nature of the album and the high level musicianship, but at the same time I have some issues with the vocals, and with the core songwriting (the album is also a bit too long featuring a playing time that exceeds the hour mark). "Diana Read Peace" therefore ends up falling in the catagory of being more interesting than actually good, but I´d still say a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

5 out of the 10 tracks on the album are re-recorded versions of tracks from the two demos. "Black Literature" was originally featured on the "The Apocryphal Wisdom (1991)" demo and "Below the Holy Fatherlands", "Spiritual", "Wizardry Assemblage" and "Medina's Spell" were originally featured on the "Of Spectre Their Ashes May Be (1992)" demo.

Stylistically the music on "Ashore the Celestial Burden" is a doomy type of death metal with occasional progressive leanings. Haunting and melancholic guitar leads, brick heavy doomy riffs and rhythms, and some very aggressive and snarling growling vocals on top. But that's not all, because this is not solely a doom/death metal album and there are usually several tempo changes in the tracks and the band often play mid-paced (and occasionally slightly faster) old school death metal parts, which adds to the brutality of the music. When they do that they remind me slightly of their fellow countrymen in Morgoth. Dark Millennium also bring progressive ideas and song structures to the table and to my ears a track like "Beyond the Dragon's Eye" is a fully fledged progressive death metal track. The tasteful and clever use of acoustic guitars and piano on that track works really well. The addition of clean vocals sung by Gerhard Magin, also make that particular track stand out.

The musicianship are obviously on a high level and "Ashore the Celestial Burden" is also packed in a raw and suitingly dark sound production. It could have been slightly more powerful and well sounding, but it's a minor issue, and it's pretty great as it is.

While I mention progressive ideas and structures above, "Ashore the Celestial Burden" is an album where Dark Millennium successfully balance death metal brutality, doomy melancholy, and progressive sophistication. Which means that the progressive ideas never come in the way of the death metal brutality or the doomy melancholy and visa versa. And along with the skilled delivery of the music, the decent sound production, and the adventurous songwriting, that's probably the album's greatest strength. A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.

The many lineup changes haven´t affected the music too much though. It´s slightly more doomy than the case was on "The Apocryphal Wisdom (1991)" and the vocals are more deeper growling, but the infectious aggression and relatively technical and adventurous approach to playing old school death metal is still intact. The sound production is raw and brutal and initially I felt the quality of the recording had dropped a bit since "The Apocryphal Wisdom (1991)", which featured a near semi- professional sound production, but upon repeated listens I realise this more raw sound production suits the music perfectly.

In addition to the high quality songwriting featured on the demo, the musicianship is a great asset too. Drummer Christoph Hesse again stands out as a rather different extreme metal drummer with a subtle drumming style and new lead vocalist Torsten Gilsbach proves to be a great replacement for Christian Mertens (although his tenure would be brief).

Dark Millennium were an ever changing act in their relatively short existence, but "Of Spectre Their Ashes May Be" pretty much stay in the same territory as "The Apocryphal Wisdom (1991)", although it´s overall a bit harsher. Quality wise it´s not as such a step up from "The Apocryphal Wisdom (1991)", but it´s definitely equal in quality and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

The music on the 5 track, 27:51 minutes long demo is death metal with both relatively technical death/thrash riffing and drumming, and the occasional more doom/death oriented section. The material are quite adventurous and dare I say semi- progressive at times. Structurally these guys aren't afraid to experiment and while some shifts between sections are slightly awkward, it predominantly works pretty well. The 12:07 minutes long closing title track is the most doomy track here, but it goes through several changes, tempi, and sections during it's playing time. The other tracks which are more regular length songs, are quite adventurous too and the creative songwriting should definitely be mentioned among the assets of this release.

Another asset is the high level musicianship. Dark Millennium sound a bit more seasoned than they probably were at this point. Especially drummer Christoph Hesse has a very creative drumming style, that's kind of subtle for such extreme music. Jazzy would be a wrong description, but there is something about his style that points in that direction. The extremely aggressive and quite distinct sounding snarling intelligible growling vocals by Christian Mertens deserve a mention too. The music is actually quite aggressive in nature and generally not as melancholic and doomy as their studio albums are.

Considering the fact that "The Apocryphal Wisdom" is a demo, the sound production is very well sounding and not far from (contemporary) professional studio quality. It's not often you'll hear death metal demos from this era, with a sound quality like this. It's still suitably raw and authentic old school sounding though. After listening to the demo it's a bit of a mystery to me, that Dark Millennium had to release another demo before getting signed, because the high quality here should have warranted a great deal of attention from labels back then. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is fully deserved.