The work of one some-time live session musician for the joke that is Cradle Of Filth, Crimson Darkness have emerged out of their darkened Southampton cave for their first studio album in six years. Perhaps they should have stayed there? The Devourer Of All is my first encounter with the band and it certainly doesn’t inspire me to seek out their back catalogue. See, I really wanted to like this given that after a run of uninspiring review material I was long overdue some black metal to sink my teeth into, but this vampiric offering just has no bite (more of a flaccid nibble if anything, hardly enough to draw blood).
The Cradle Of Filth comparison came long before I had got to the point of checking my facts, so Darren Donnarumma’s credentials came as little surprise. On second listen, upon hitting play I think I have judged the band too harshly; opening track ‘War’ actually isn’t terrible. The relatively coherent structure of this is flavoured with some atmospheric keyboard flurries even if the Danni Filth shrieks do grate against my eardrums like a screaming brat on a 3 hour bus ride. Track finished, now said bus goes downhill rapidly and crashes headfirst into a brick wall. Would I say this is a terrible album? Mmm, not quite so bad but this is all very much a by-numbers affair with no investment of passion or creative spark. Tracks such as ‘Beautiful Ashes’ are passing me by causing little offense (well, irritatingly monotone vocals aside), but barely registering.
If I’m being completely fair the music isn’t especially poorly executed; everything is where it should be, guitars, drums, bass…it’s all reasonably together and it would be rude not to point this out. This alone however doesn’t make an album worth listening to and I demand a lot more from my black metal. The songs are totally derivative and appear disjointed and sloppy, typical of bands more interested in corpsepaint, gimmickry and using the number ‘666’ as often as possible than the music and with nothing genuine to say. Considering the Metal Archives page lists the band as ‘atmospheric black metal’ their attempts at atmosphere are lost on me; a few twinkly keyboard sounds do not in itself create atmosphere just as a great black metal band can generate a fuck-ton of it sans keyboards. As I listen to a 9:50 minute long epic ‘The Witching Hour’ I am wondering how I have managed to get this far without turning it off; I haven’t heard anything quite so bland in this genre since Wykkid Wytch. On that note, now is a good time to clock out, take something for my headache and listen to something a bit more inspiring.
http://www.myspace.com/crimsondarkness666
Luci Herbert
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