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It's been five years since this band released their killer little EP Your Darkest Hour, which was a fine slab of melodeath and made me look forward to a full-length from this act. Finally, we get a full-length release in Fallout, as well as the news that the band has broken up, and this is all we will get.

Overall, I don't find this as enjoyable as their EP, and it's obvious that the five years since that release has seen some definite metalcore influence creep into Dark Haven's music. There are no riffs as melodic and enjoyable as those on "Revenant" or "Blackheart", and the guitars here are much more focused on rhythm than melody and hooks. The keys are still here to add some depth, but they are employed much more simplistically, which is bad as they are almost entirely used to carry the melodic part of the songs. The drumwork has declined largely into simple rat-tat-tat which is almost exactly the same on every song, to the point where these tunes are hard to tell apart.

I hate to say it, but as they seemed bent on becoming a kind of Soilwork clone, the fact that Dark haven are no more can be seen as a kind of relief. Fallout is a decent melodeath album with some fine passages, but the fire and talent that band flashed in the old days has decayed into 'coreism. I suppose we can be grateful that they broke up before they got any worse.