Darkest Era – Severance
Ireland’s Darkest Era are an amalgamation of styles that coexist within a traditional metal construct. Folk elements and some faster, more aggressive speeds/aggression help to sculpt the palatable and easy on the senses Severance album, the bands 2nd full-length release. By “easy”, I mean the songs are skillfully composed, powerful and generally enjoyable to comprehend. The bands sense of melody and creating free floating riffs further points to a folk metal influence, and it really gives tracks like Songs of Gods and Men a spaciousness that finds dual guitar harmonies interacting in a playful, yet darkness encrusted sense of melancholy that is the underlying current spun throughout the core of this music. Krum’s vocals are clean, unique and within a mid-ranged croon that does reach to higher notes, though he never finds himself past the point of no return. His ear for sticking with the verse riffs for impact is sensible, but he finds interesting variations and melodies independent of the main flow to deliver the lyrics. It all works perfectly well together, further heightening the masterful level of songwriting on this album with some truly passionate twin guitar solo work to give this album a deeper, even playful edge.
Darkest Era are definitely their own band, and a damn good one at that, but one cannot deny the darkened doom sensibilities of their sound is Candlemassian. The folk spirit and and occasional hard hitting edge in their more intense passages are touched by the passion emitting from the really great Primoridal albums. DE blend it all together really well and with truly fantastic tracks like Beyond the Grey Veil with it’s moving/endlessly saddened guitar work and Krum’s equally emotional performance, Severance has introduced me to a very solid band that will likely find their way into my weekly rotation as this album takes a deeper hold. Excellent, well rounded and heartfelt metal. -Marty
Cruz Del Sur Music
Worm Gear 
Their last album was good, but perhaps foretold more promise, than actual greatness. Looking forward to this and will definately pick up. I also have to get the new Battleroar which is on cruz del sur as well.