Darkane

Insanity (Century Media)
by Martin Popoff

New vocalist for record two, but same quick-footed Swedish death sound as Darkane drill the listener track after track, propelled by the busy Calamity Kane drumming of Peter Wildoer, oddly the stand-out performer on the album. Daniel Bergstrand is on board once again for production duties, but the sound is a tad thinner and more hectic, the man seeming to explore treble and distortion (parts of this actually sound defective) to create this kind of frenzied chaos.

He and Wildoer collaborate on a sinister vibe that is note-dense, beat-rapid and heart-exploding. As we’ve groused before, this type of metal is the real domain of progressive, Darkane and bands like Soilwork putting a new, ultra-competitive spin on the complicated school of old thrash (Coroner, Kreator, Mekong Delta, Voivod), vaguely industrial up top or in the back, but moreso just emanating this electronic hangover ring in the ears because of all the metal ideas compressed into each song. Yet another more-than-worthy entry in a mechanically-advanced genre packed with creative bands.
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