Dark Heart-Shadows of the night

Metal Mind
1984/2009



One of the many bands to emerge from the NWOBHM explosion, Dark Heart formed in 1983 out of the ashes of Tokyo Rose. They rather quickly got on track and knocked out an album the next year. This is solid metal driven by gritty guitars and complemented by a slightly dull production that helps their style. The album is based around strong hooks and that's why it works so well. The songs are easy to get into largely due to the basic song structures. It doesn't take long to draw comparisons to Diamond Head's work from a few years earlier. Dark Heart obviously followed a similar blue print. There's not much fancy here, but there doesn't have to be. The choruses are instantly catchy and Dark Heart waste little in getting into the meat of every track. "Shadows of the night" is an album full of easily accessible material. I am actually surprised that I had never heard of this band until this re-issue was announced. I do think that they could have varied the pace a little more at times. More than anything the biggest reason this album didn't make a larger splash may just be that the sound is perhaps a couple of years behind. It came out in 1984, but if I had heard it without knowing the release year then I would have guessed 1982. This would be the only album for Dark Heart. The band fell apart some time after "Shadows of the night" was released. Guitarist Alan Clark did try to form a new version of the band, but that project also fell apart after a short time. Some other members of Dark Heart later ended up in a thrash band called Holosade. Thanks to Metal Mind for re-releasing this or else I probably never would have stumbled upon this band. Certainly worth checking out.