Rating: 8/10
Release: 13 June 2014
Label: Cruz Del Sur Music

Darkest Era treats us with their second full length album ‘Severance’. When you listen to this record, you immediately notice they’re coming from Ireland. They obviously share the same roots as great names like Primordial and Mael Mordha. A very special kind of music, with a lot of feelings hidden in it. A kind of music in which I always find it very difficult to avoid to compare it all with the intriguing voice of Primordial’s singer A.A. But that’s not a fair thing to do. And despite the fact I really love Primordial and Mael Mordha, I have to admit, the last albums of both bands are the best by far. So time to switch the ‘comparison-mode’ off.
Severance starts with a nice intriguing guitar intro, to go into a very nice Irish piece of work in ‘Sorrow’s Boundless Realm’, when you’re a fan of this kind of music it immediately grabs you and drags you in. Very nice piece of work, and like in the rest of the album the bass if just fabulous. Daniel sure knows how to use this tool! Nice bass-players like this who grab their part without being annoyingly in the front are a rare breed.
On the album are eight, 4 1/2 to over 8 minutes long pieces of work. All nice compositions in which you won’t get bored at all. Good vocals, very nice guitars and drums and an outstanding bass-player pull you into the the Irish Celtic times for 44 minutes. That’s rather short for a full length album, but since this is all sounds very nice, I will forgive them for that.

Typical Irish Celtic Metal and of a very nice kind. Their style is more close to Mael Mordha than to Primordial, but when you’re a fan of one of these bands you should definitely listen to ‘Severance’. A very strong piece of work by Darkest Era.

Tracklist

1. Sorrow’s Boundless Realm 06:03
2. Songs of Gods and Men 05:16
3. The Serpent and the Shadow 04:39
4. Beyond the Grey Veil 06:01
5. Trapped in the Hourglass 05:24
6. The Scavenger 04:31
7. A Thousand Screaming Souls 04:49
8. Blood, Sand and Stone 08:08