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These guys obviously love their symphony-filled Black Metal, and replicate a fairly good representation of their own version of it for this, their strangely titled debut full length. Forming in Italy in 2005, Dark End quickly got to work on writing spectacular keyboard infused metal whilst keeping the onus on the guitar work to carry the melodies.

Though there is a hell of a lot of synthesizer work throughout the album, it never seems to overpower the riffs — a testament to the excellent compositional skills of the band in my opinion. Tracks like "Vampire" and "Destruction" both have an overabundance of tunefulness whilst keeping the extremity pushed forward thanks to the powerful drum work and buzzing guitars that twitch and sway like a ghostly headless apparition. Vocally, Polacco has a sore-throated hiss reminiscent of a beefier Ihsahn, managing to work in a theatrical emotion to the dramatic musical backdrop — never an easy task for a harsh vocal performance. Most interestingly (well, for me at least) is the final track, which is a cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart", which they have re-worked in a Black Metal style. I actually skipped straight to this track first, expecting it to sound utter cack, but it's actually pretty good, keeping the depressive sentiment of the original well.

Whilst these guys won't be taking the symphonic Black Metal crown from Dimmu Borgir any time soon, they can certainly hold their own when it comes to standing toe to toe with any of the other up and coming bands in this style.