Dark Age - Dark Age

*=Staff's pick	Fix The Focus* Zero* Dare To Collapse* Pulse Of Minority Neokillers Nikita My Own Darkness Neurosis 404* The Elegy Of A Forgotten Science* Suicide Solution*

Genre	Melodic Death Metal	Eike Freese	Vocals
Tracks	10	Eike Freese	Guitar
Runningtime	41 Min.	Jörn Schubert	Guitar
Label	Remedy Records	Torsten Eggert	Bass
Release	19 May 2004	André Schumann	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Hypocrisy, In Flames

Fifth album by these German guys and it makes me wonder why I haven't discovered them earlier. Heavy driven metal that is just as much thrash as it is death metal, although the death elements are those mostly presented. And in likeness with other modern death metal acts they often mixes the vocals between growls in the verses and with clean vocals through the refrains.

Dark Age shares a lot with the Gothenburg metal sound not least with the sense of driving melodies even if they have gathered inspirations from more than that direction. The track Zero includes Rammstein heaviness and riffing and melodies from guitars like Arch Enemy with a clean voice and melodic refrain. Neurosis 404 is of the Gothenburg sounding kind and has much in common with the Damage Done release from Dark Tranquillity, aggressiveness mixed with melody and small electronic elements. The growls in this track goes straight through the whole song and it also has one of those a catching guitar-line that runs through the song.

Dark Age include some guests on their album, one amongst the others is Johan Edlund from Tiamat that guests on two of the tracks. Not sure whether is because of him but those two counts in as better ones on the album, or if it is because Dare To Collapse and The Elegy Of A Forgotten Science is a perfect mix between Arch Enemy and the later angrier sound of In Flames?

The selftitled album from Dark Age gives an professional impression and it is perfectly well-balanced between anger and melody and it sounds mature. The only weak spot is really the calmer track My Own Darkness that is an acoustic and calm ballad like track that lacks of the power that the rest of this album possess. And I also want to hand out a cheers and a raising of the glass for the cover of Suicide Solution, fresh sounding and heavier than Ozzy ever been on his own and faster than the original but with the distinguished guitar sound Randy Rhoads had.