ALBUM REVIEW: Old – Dawn Of Darkness

German Black-Thrash masters OLD are finally back with their second album via Unsilent Tombs Records.

The album fires in with menacing riffs and pounding drums, thick bass lines cutting the low end while morbid guitars soar above. This blistering inferno of evil wastes no time going into overdrive with grooves and ferocity spewing over, as the vicious vocals snarl atop the violent instrumental assault. Old is back, on top form, the instantly captivating essence of true Heavy Metal in the air, as both singles alluded to, with bestial spirit intact. Going right in with such a malignant start and pulling down the tempo with some d-beats and slower sections builds tension while never losing that rusted edge that cuts without mercy, Old still have plenty of variety while keeping their refined razorblades reigning furiously.

Forging onward, we hear plenty of that classic German Black-Thrash spirit that Old were instrumental in, if at a cult level, still sincere and feisty. The band rips across the board with savage instrumental and vocal delivery as each of the pieces flow like a stream of blasphemous carnage. Harnessing the malevolent spirit of the undergrounds early days, keeping the old school sound and feel burning strong, I feel Old deserve far more recognition and hopefully this album will remind newer bangers of this lost German legend. Venturing into the middle sections of this record we hear some excellent melody, though used in a mayhem-inducing manner, nothing soft here.

It feels like the band has taken their phenomenal cult debut and brought it back to life with new ideas and refreshing angles (such as a song in Spanish that totally rules). The corpse has been exhumed to spread morbid Metal mania to any headbangers true enough to blast “Dawn Of Darkness”, which I hope will be many of you! The musicianship is tighter than ever and the production is stunningly organic, warm and heavy enough to hammer down the nails. There is something very genuine about Old, they never seem to try too hard or push boundaries past their own desire to play ripping Extreme Metal for true die-hards, and they achieve exactly that here.

A masterful follow up to “Down With The Nails” which delivers total incineration by evil Metal. If you seek Black-Thrash of the best quality, then look no further. Old are back to dominate.