2007 sees record label Nuclear Blast celebrating twenty years of releasing some of the most uncompromising and rocking music around. Earlier this year the label released “Into The Light” using various singers and musicians who have graced Nuclear Blast releases down the years. It went down a storm and gathered much praise. Now with “Out Of The Dark” the label have released what they describe as the previous albums “evil twin” as it contains ten tracks of darker and heavier music.

“Out Of The Dark” has been produced, composed and played by Peter Wichers, one of the founding members of Soilwork. For drums he got a little help from his good friends Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork, Scarve) and Henry Ranta (ex-Soilwork).

The first thing that struck me about this album after just the first listen was that it sonically sounds fantastic. The mix on every track is crisp, punchy and frankly massive and enormous. If you have a good hi-fi you need to crank this album up loud and shake the foundations of whatever neighbourhood you live in.

The album begins with “Dysfunctional Hours”, a song that features Anders Friden (In Flames) on vocals and the track suits his aggressive vocal attack perfectly as melodies and riffs bounce around with demented abandon. Likewise “Schizio” has a great vocal from Hypocrisy's Peter Tagtgren and more cool and creative dark metal guitar from Wichers and once stellar guitar soloing.

“Devotion” is an intense, gothic thrash metal joy ride and features Jari Maenpaa (Wintersun) on vocals. Think “Cradle Of Filth” for grown ups and then double the intensity and you might get close to how devastating this track is. The drumming is impressive and had me exhausted after the first verse and chorus. “The Overshadowing” again has guitar riffs which are crushing in their intensity, and Christian Alvestam (Scar Symmetry) on vocals gives it his all.

“Paper Trail” sees a very welcome return to the studio of former Anthrax frontman John Bush. If there were such a thing as intense sleaze metal this track would be it. This song rocks along like a worn and scarred battle horse and we also get an ultra cool guitar solo. “The Dawn Of All” features Soilwork's Bjorn Strid who simply sings his heart out for all he’s worth and does justice to one of the best songs on the album. This track is almost progressive intense metal thanks to some unusual guitar accompaniment.

 “Cold Is My Vengeance” creeps up out of the mix and charges head first down an extreme and rocky road to oblivion. Maurizio Iacono (Kataklysm) provides aggressive growling vocals over Wichers creative and sharp guitar riffs. “My Name Is Fate” features Mark Osegueda (Death Angel) who, true to form, puts in an explosive vocal. This track truly kicks major backside with riffs that Slash would be proud of and is a definite highlight of the album.

Penultimate track, “The Gilded Dagger”, features Richard Sjunnesson and Roland Johansson (Sonic Syndicate). Powerful verses battle it out with soaring choruses and very creative guitar riffing before the album is finally brought to a close with the menacing groove of “Close To the Edge”. This features vocals from Mnemic's  Guillaume Bideau vocals and is a cracking way to round things off. Guillaume’s vocals are passionate and full of angst and the song genuinely chips away and gets under the listeners skin.

“Out Of the Dark” is an exceptional album. It shows to great effect everything that is great about the intense metal genre. The album is chock full of great individual performances and as mentioned earlier the whole package sounds fantastic. If you are on the look out for an album guaranteed to give you a metal buzz this album will do the job in fact it might be one of the best metal fixes you’ll hear this year thanks to its stellar line-up of talent. Highly recommended.

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Track Listing

Dysfunctional Hours
Schizo
Devotion
The Overshadowing
Paper Trail
The Dawn Of All
Cold Is My Vengeance
My Name Is Fate
The Gilded Dagger
Closer To The Edge