A few months ago I found a sound file of “Frozen Portrait” by DEMONIC RESURRECTION, a band from India, on a site I don’t remember anymore. And this track made me find out more about the band and then get in touch with their front man Demonstealer, which now resulted in me spinning their CD “A Darkness Descends“.

Demonstealer (Vocals/Guitars) is the last remaining founding member of the Mumbai-based band, which originally was founded in 2000, but broke apart a short time after. Demonstealer reformed the band in 2003 again with a completely new line-up and new spirit. “A Darkness Descends“ is the second album of the band (the first one had been released during the first instalment of the band) and before I had even put in the CD, I already was impressed, because the cover artwork and layout of the booklet are top notch, every song has its own artwork, very good beginning!

And when the CD then starts after the intro “Prelude to Darkness“, two other things become very clear. For one the production from the Power Station and Demonic Studios, which is very clear and powerful and easily puts many European and North American productions to shame, for the other the will and even more so the ability not to limit themselves to the usual genre borders, but stepping over into different styles and letting these borders blur without tearing the compositions apart.

The sound is based on Death Metal, symphonic Black Metal and Power Metal, woven together in a great fashion, reaching from great calm/atmospheric passages up to hefty blast beats, with growls, screeches and great clear vocals, with very nice dynamics and at times dramatic structure, as prime example I have to mention “Apocalyptic Dawn“, which combines all of these elements, while “Behind The Mask Of God“ also features female vocals. “A Darkness Descends“ also has these incredible dynamics and then “Frozen Portrait“ – calm beginning with strong clear vocals, before they gear up, but always keeping strong melodies and variability and “The Summoning” attacks you from the get go, but again bringing in atmospheric passages as well.

You can see, there is a lot going on here and together with the production and the artwork this is a quite impressive overall piece of art, which can compete with the majority of label releases. I am very positively surprised and recommend “A Darkness Descends“ to all fans of strong, variable Metal and I will dig a bit deeper!

To find out, where you can get this CD, check this link: http://www.demonstealerrecords.com. (Online February 13, 2006)