DARKSEED – Poison Awaits

The development process of the German Darkseed through their career is very similar to the recent development of the English Goth lords, Paradise Lost. So what is the difference between these two bands? Darkseed came about only a few years after the British giants and went on to play pretty much the same line of Extreme Metal, Death/Doom Metal. Years afterwards, both bands went softer and took their aim at Gothic/Heavy Metal. Metalheads know the fall of Paradise Lost in the late 90s and their resurrection in the 2000s, however, for Darkseed, their career shifted rather differently.

Unlike Paradise Lost, Darkseed did not fall into too much of the electronic trends and maintained their style as Metal, not extreme, yet still in the boundaries of what is to be called Metal. Nevertheless, in comparison to their British counterparts, Darkseed, for years they chose to remain in the same point. While Paradise Lost is coming back to their early 90s image, Darkseed share many similarities to that first half of the first decade of 2000s, somewhere between the albums Symbol Of Life and Paradise Lost. That era could be categorized as an era of heaviness, nice material and the return of the doomy side to the music.

Darkseed’s new creation of Poison Awaits, promotes their new singer, Harald Winkler, and tells their Gothic/Heavy tale with the same kind of ease, which served them these past few years. Various attributes of this album include being flowing, catchy, easy to maintain, non-complex and having its share of good moments of harmony and some creative melodies of both guitars and keyboards. Moreover, it is good to know that Darkseed were akin to preserve their sound, which made them noticeable for years. However, this album turned out to be less heavy than older albums and less extreme than their old days. In addition, with the easiness of their darkened material, it came to the point that Darkseed is repeating itself. The reason can be due to their known way of writing songs. Ever since they turned softer, their way was to keep everything running smoothly without trying to be technical or complex in any way. When you bound your ears to a new era of Darkseed, it is like the same feeling of putting on a 2000’s album of Paradise Lost, except from the last two albums of course. It is fun, compelling, but after a few listens, there is a feeling that something more is needed aside from just being straight to the point.

Poison Awaits produced some good Darkseed hits of their new age of music. Some of them are “Incinerate”, “Poison Awaits”, “Seeds Of Sorrow”, “A Duel Pact”, and “Timeless Skies”. However, this is not Give Me Light or Midnight Solemnly Dance. Winkler, as the new vocalist is doing his job well and with hope he will succeed in doing so in the coming years. He sounds like a cool darkened 80s singer with different influences, which are easy to observe.

For the coming albums, Darkseed should take a long look at their older legacy and take samples out of it because they had something better going on back then. Although, as mentioned, they wrote a solid, atmospheric and driving material for this one, they should try to find the thing that would draw the listeners to stay more and absorb them.

Steinmetal’s hits on the tracklist

1. Roads
2. Incinerate
3. Poison Awaits
4. Seeds Of Sorrow
5. All Is Vanity
6. Black Throne
7. A Dual Pact
8. Torn To Shatters
9. No Promise In The Heavens
10. Striving For Fire
11. Timeless Skies
12. King In The Sun

Lineup

Harald Winkler – Vocals
Thomas Herrmann – Guitars
Tom Gilcher – Guitars
Michael Behnke – Bass
Maurizio Guolo – Drums
Armin Dörfler – Keyboards