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Review: Darkside of Innocence - Infernum Liberus EST
Darkside of Innocence
www.myspace.com/darksideofinnocence
Infernum Liberus EST

Label: Independent
Year released: 2009
Duration: 58:52
Tracks: 12
Genre: Black Metal

Rating:
3.5/5


Review online: February 24, 2010
Reviewed by: Nahsil
Readers' Rating
How do you rate this release?

Rated 3.5/5 (70%) (8 Votes)
Review

Hailing from Portugal, Darkside of Innocence are clearly inspired by the likes of Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir. One can come into Infernum Liberus EST expecting sorrowful female vocals complementing traditional black metal shrieks, melodic keys and guitar leads, and, to the band's credit, some surprisingly beautiful guitar solos. There's also a lot of string-work, adding to the melodic nature of their brand of black metal.

Blatant influencing agents aside, there's something to be said for doing a task well, even if it doesn't score high in originality. Darkside of Innocence may rely too heavily on Cradle of Filth for their specific variety of metal, but I can't say what's here is bad. It's likely too pretentious in message for some, the lyrics drawing further from Dani Filth in their melancholic, melodramatic imagery (and the song names...really?), but bad lyrics are easy to ignore in extreme metal. The music is bombastic at times, with string arrangements next to soaring keys next to wistful clean female singing, and as such won't appeal to all fans of black metal. The guitar work in general could be a lot worse, though. Even the rhythm guitar, too often overlooked in this sub-genre of black metal, exhibits some interesting ideas and doesn't consistently just plod along, passing the duty of that complex rhythmic aspect to other instruments.

The high point here is most definitely the guitar soloing, followed by rhythm guitar and the general song structure, which manages to be cohesive most of the time. There are three classical/neoclassical interludes, but they're relatively short, spanning 1 to 3 minutes, and are generally well-composed. The notion of CoF/Dimmu worship has the potential to be pretty horrifying, but Darkside of Innocence do as well as can be expected, managing to impress now and then.

Solid, if unimaginatively by the numbers in most areas.

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