Many of us, including myself, are nagging about new bands directly copying ideas, riffs, lyrics etc from legends of the past as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica and so on something which ends in having albums that head direct for the trash bin as they’re just a sacrilege to our Heavy Metal heritage. Bands like the ones I mentioned didn’t copy Beatles, Uriah Heep, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix or other legends of their own teenagehood. Instead of doing so, they took our music one step further by adding elements or by mixing it with elements of their own time. And it is my firm belief that cultures, art and therefore music has to process in order to survive. Because, anything that doesn’t evolve, dies. Darkology, even with their debut album "Altered Reflections", can be considered as bringers of the evolution that our music needs in order to survive the test of time.\r\n
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\r\nThe Texans from Middle Earth (their influences of J.R.R. Tolkien are obvious), after a short intro release a storm of talent, inspiration and experimentation directly with the beginning of the second track "Violent Vertigo". Imagine Candlemass jamming with Blind Guardian and covering Dio on one stage and on the other right across the first, Mastodon revolving with Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. Special guests, Dream Theater and King Diamond. Darkology manage to combine nearly everything we’ve heard in Heavy Metal all these years adding many melodic and atmospheric parts which enrich the final outcome. Great work on guitar playing by Michael Harris and on vocals by Sundown who takes the biggest risk of experimentation as he combines many types of vocal lines in his work. Drum playing by Brian Harris reminded me a lot of the Symphony X’s great album "Paradise Lost". The tracks cannot be separated one from another therefore making a solid, 100% complete album. Another comment I’d like to make on them, is that Darkology didn’t, at any time, overplay during the album which makes it easy to be heard even to those who don’t belong to their potential audience. Last but not least, the excellent production of the album gives it the extra boost that it needs in order to go from "Very Good" to "F****ing Great" !\r\n
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\r\nTruely one of the hottest albums of 2009 strikes at the start of the winter. Darkology are able to take Heavy Metal one step further and I honestly wish they do so. \r\n
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\r\nChris "Wildchild" Zarkadakis\r\n
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