Label: Self released
Date: August 29th, 2022
From the start of 2023 I reviewed many excellent young bands. Their work was based on only one album or EP. Good news is that next to the fact they are on a fresh new start of their careers those bands are really good musicians. Bright future is in front of them and they surely deserve more attention. Their five minutes of fame is here behind the corner, so give them a chance.
The same or better said similar thing is with Darconigan. Totally unknown to me and my music library, they introduced themselves as a melodic death metal from the darkest forests of Colorado, USA. Their first album under the name “Helm, Shield and Spear” got out of that darkness to the light of the day. Oh, this sounds like a part of review about some lame romantic book. But let’s see about this darkness anyway.
Melodic death metal has many dresses as I see. Popularity of this genre among younger audience really went far but with good reason. Everything goes with this perfect genre. Slow melody, fast, blast beating, symphonic and any subject in lyrics. As Darconigan put themselves in this part of metal they are on the good path to become even better, they got the point.
From the start to the end they are really walking us with headsets through the darkest forest ever. First song, “A Sign by the Creekfall” is in my opinion the central song that describes Darconigan as a band and their style. Really dark and a bit monotonous atmosphere from this song to the last makes some rough vibe. Even too long duration of a few next songs didn’t make me stop this album only to hear what they have to offer until the end. Maybe I expected too much, but surely some good riffs were about to be fun.
Doom note is present all the time and I think this album is more doom then melodic death. Only because of specific slow and intense but again monotonous sound. Next to that Darconigan showed us they can do more.
“Anathema and Fate” is one more song that left its mark on this album. I felt like the album woke up for a bit in this song. It’s some anathema in the game so it has to be loud and meaningful. Otherwise it won’t be good.
Subject is as dark as the black night. At once, all my attention was on it. I thought it was all about some war but actually mountain and its not so pleasant world was the centre of this album. As we know, metal can have the first prize for the most evil and bloody lyrics so Darconigan once again proved that’s more than true.
Honestly I didn’t have so much hope in to the album musically, because it’s on some kind of seesaw entire time. Lyrics are the better side of “Helm, Shield and Spear” for sure. I hope Darconigan will offer us something fresh with their mark and with the same dose of darkness once again.
