Lord of Sickness and Bile

A short 2-song EP from Darkened—this seems to be becoming a trend these days—and it's a little different from Kingdom of Decay, which sounded like a mix of New York and Swedish death metal. This time around, there's the Polish sound making an entrance and a bit of UK death metal as well, on top of the expected Swedish sound, and not so much American. It's an international band, after all, so it's not surprising to hear various influences and that's what makes these two songs pretty cool. It's not super heavy and mostly relies on speed for the first song and a more melodic approach on the second, but both sport some cool aggressive guitar riffs and pounding drums, so get your air instruments ready and make an appointment with your chiropractor to fix your neck after all the headbanging. After listening to this, I'm certainly looking forward to the next album.