THE LONG DARK ROAD – The Long Dark Road

Based in Toronto, The Long Dark Road presents fans with their self-titled, debut offering. With only 4 tracks, The Long Dark Road would typically be considered an EP, yet the album’s running time of 35 minutes plants it in full-length territory. You’ll find a melting pot of genres here including Black Metal, Alternative and Atmospheric Rock and Hardcore Punk. The 4 tracks, which range from 6 + minutes to 10, reflect the stereotypical darkness and depression that one would expect from a Canadian, Post-Metal influenced band.

While this album makes many of the mistakes that are common to debut albums, it makes up for its failings with an infectious, aggressive energy and a hyper-passionate delivery, which many fans of the style will find appealing. The harshest criticism that can be leveled against The Long Dark Road is that rather than presenting a clear, focused collection of what the band has to offer, the album instead presents an amalgamation of the writer’s influences without any creative cohesiveness or a clear, larger artistic goal. The songwriting often falls into self indulgence and while there are dynamics to be found, it is the dreaded really loud verses really soft approach, which can leave the listener feeling emotionally battered and empty. Calculated transitions within the songs seemed to have been totally dismissed. Despite these failings, several of the tracks, including album opener “The Tragedy Of The Commons”, will take you on a pleasant, psychedelic Metal journey complete with strange, dark, mysterious worlds and shady characters.

The tracks are unfailingly anchored by the substantial drum chops of Toby Cavan, which helps give the album a sense of direction and consistency. Production on this release is solid, with the possible exception of the vocal tracks which are sometimes buried in the mix. They’re low even for a Metal album and this gives the impression that vocalist and lyricist Jeremy Cavan perhaps wasn’t 100% sold on his own work. This may not actually be the case, but having the vocals up front would have presented a stronger sense of confidence.

Pros and cons aside, taken as a whole, The Long Dark Road will please fans of bands like Baroness, Deafheaven, Callisto and the general Post-Metal subgenre. With a bit of patience and understanding, listeners will be rewarded with a full helping of high energy angst and passionate emotional warfare.

Available for pre-order now on Bandcamp.