Dark Sky - Initium

Pure Legend Records
2012

I'm not too familiar with Dark Star's work. According to our friends over at the Metal Archives the band started off as a hard rock/AOR group before adopting a melodic heavy metal style later on. Listening to this album I can see that (or hear that rather). This German band certainly sounds as if they started off playing hard rock as the roots are there. "Initium" is album number five from this southern Germany act. Formed in 1982 the group released two demos over the course of ten years. The band split up in 1992 only to re-form a year later. From the looks of it Dark Sky would take eight years to release their debut album (2000's "Believe It"), but since then they have managed to have a fairly regular output. One thing that jumps to mind front and center when you listen to Dark Sky is the huge Helloween vibe you get. The band isn't a carbon copy by any means. Vocalist/guitarist Frank Breuninger for one sounds more like a AOR front-man then someone who would be singing in a German power metal outfit. Also, the keyboard playing of Claudio Nobile betrays the band's hard rock roots.  Mostly it is the guitar work of Steffen Dollre and the actually song structures/lyrics that make you think of Helloween. A cut like "Judas 1 - Dancing with the Devil" sounds like it was formed from left over Helloween tracks, but good ones at that. The lead guitar work especially is German power metal at it's best. So, while it does come off a bit odd at times (power metal meets hard rock/melodic metal?) there are some solid numbers to be found and, with a above-average production job, Dark Sky gives us an album that is quite good if not exceptional. Interestingly enough the album also seems to have one of those vibes where it gets better the further you trek into the 56 minute release. For a band that has released five studio-albums since the year 2000 is this the album that will finally put them on the map?I'm not sure about that, but I am sure that this one deserves a second and third listen when times allows.