The Journey Through Damnation

When I got this promo, I was real happy for it appeared to be pretty much fitting into my field of interest. Alas, one should not be lured by the folk/Viking cover art, or by the darkly evocative band's name and title.

This Irish quintet has two women on board, handling guitars and drums. Darkest Era is said to be a Celtic Metal band, but their metal is actually more leaning towards Heavy/Power, with some folk and epic elements. The music is not bad as such, but they should consider changing their signer. I mean, when your name is Darkest Era and you are supposed to be a Celtic Metal band, the signer should not sound too clean / mainstream/ power-ish! Not that a Black Metal rasps is a must, but a good folksy and epic vocalist would suit much more, see? I'm afraid that here, "the vox" is killing the songs. Musically, they don't go too much in the Power style, beside when a few faster paces and double basses are involved. The guitar work is muscular, and having two guitar players, the melodiousness of their songs is not at fault. As a matter of fact, clean arpeggios and a few acoustic guitar parts can be found in every composition. A bit of an epic chant is to be heard once and a while too, so all is not lost. My favorite song is called "Another World Waits".

The Journey Through Damnation would have deserved more darkness!