Today’s melodic death metal bands are like teenage high school movies. There are way too many of them, few of them stick out meaning that most of them aren’t worth your time because you’ve heard/seen it all before. When I first heard Demonic Art during the time it was released, I pretty much dismissed it. However, after being on a melodeath wave for quite some time I decided to give it another shot. Darkane has always delivered solid and thrashy melodic death metal albums that always seem to spawn great excitement around. Demonic Art is their fifth and their latest album to date, and while I didn’t know exactly what to expect, the positive reviews hailed from every corner of the web. This genre is as desperate for refreshment as a fish is for water. Does Darkane even try to create some tension with Demonic Art, and maybe more important, do they succeed in making this something you would prefer to more or less everything else? Well, it should be said that this isn’t the complete Gothenburg rip-off I thought it would be and somehow expected. This is thrashier melodic death metal, with use of elements I’m not sure I appreciate that much.

First of all, their use of symphonic elements does not fit, even though it’s not much. They try to make this sound more powerful and mighty than it actually is. I have a feeling that they’re trying on the proggy outfit with some odd time-changes, without that really working out either. It sounds forced, and instead of adding another dimension, it subtracts one. Constantly switching between shout-y roars and clean vocals doesn’t exactly raise the enjoyment of this as, even if it’s not core-ish, doesn’t belong. Jens Broman’s harsh vocal work is pretty great, bordering to excellent, yet his inconsistent changes in style tears down the walls of anger and energy he creates. As for the riffs, this is nothing in particular, some of it this is pretty damn catchy, yet the quality of the huge riffs that is supposed to tear down mountains is absent. However, songs like The Killing of I among others does stand out as less boring than the others and shows potential. Then again, what’s potential when you’ve released five albums?

All in all, while this has some stuff that can easily be enjoyed for one or two spins, this is definitely a record that won’t wear down your stereo. That is of course if you’re not a hardcore fan of the band or the scene in general. While I’m not overly familiar with Darkane’s former outings, I refuse to believe that they’ve always been stuck in this puddle of mediocrity. If you want some proper modern melodic death metal, you should check out fellow Swedes, Dimension Zero and their latest outing He Who Shall Not Bleed. What it all boils down to here is that these guys just can’t write proper and reinventing songs. It is clearly audible that they try; however, they fail badly as the songs dos nothing but tickle your subconsciousness as they completely pass you by. This deserves an overly keen listener to memorize. Skip.