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Despite starting out in 2002, Darkness Ablaze only released this, their self-titled debut album back in 2007 originally, although now it has been given a wider release courtesy of Black Bards Entertainment. The band plays an up-tempo blend of melodic Black Metal with touches of Pagan Metal here and there cloaked amongst the riff work, with an unashamed usage of synthesizer and piano when the mood fits.

The album's pace is generally high, but it does occasionally sweep into a nostalgic slower passages ("Ascending From Ashes Part I" is a great example of their slower side), with the riffage being coated in both deep growling vocals as well as the usual throaty Black Metal hiss that we've all come to know and love. Acoustic guitars are used to great effect, though usually not for long before passing back into the tremolo picked sound they love to utilize the most (personally I'd like to hear more of their more gentler, slower side, but they always seem so desperate to get back into the head-down trudging which, in my opinion, blights their sound).

So, whilst this isn't exactly world changing music, it generally has enough resourcefulness behind it to keep your interest from waning. With that said however, another generally faceless band in a huge crowd of faceless bands doesn't exactly make the future look bright for these guys. It'll be interesting to see how they can improve on this performance in their future releases, because without revisionism here, they could easily fall by the wayside if they continue to push out releases that sound the same as this. A slightly above average release, but not a particularly interesting one.