Darkness-Conclusion and revival

Battle Cry
1989, 2005, 2010

Change can be a good thing, but it can also be a killer too. In 1988 Darkness had released "Defenders of justice" their second album and both were very strong thrash albums. Unfortunately there were problems within the band and between the band and their label. Very soon guitarist Pierre Danielscyk and more importantly vocalist Oliver Fernickel were out. The band reluctantly added vocalist Ray Druschal and decided to continue as a four piece. Their relationship with their label Gama was now strained and their music direction was changing quickly. The results are Conclusion and Revival which is mixed bag of ill-conceived ideas and scattered styles. The thrash of their previous efforts is still present on a few songs, but they also brought in classic metal, punk rock and even some funky moments. Now that might sound promising in print, but trust me it didn't make translate well when they recorded it. The music lacks soul and personality as it just seems like they didn't know how to put the styles together. Vocalist Ray Druschal just wasn't a sufficient replacement for Oliver Fernickel. Druschal lacked to power and grit to pull it off. The production on this album is better, but that's about it. They would release a live album after this and then call it quits a few years later. However in 2004 several members re-united and continued on as Eure Erben playing the style started on the first two Darkness albums. They chose a different band name because they although they wanted to play their old thrash songs they didn't feel they could be Darkness without Olli Fernickel and he had unfortunately passed away in 1998. Despite the fact that this album was disappointing it must be pointed out that the re-issue does include a Eure Erben song from 2005 and the raw, but impressive "Titanic War" demo from 1986 as bonus tracks. This re-issue originally put out in 2005, but is now back in print.