Arkaea

Years In The Darkness is the debut album from Arkaea, a band formed by members from Fear factory and Threat Signal. Expectations are high with a line up like that but the question always remains if they can fulfill such expectations. In this case, Arkaea, certainly did.

Years In The Darkness is an album that has an old school metal sound to it in which you can definitely hear some Fear Factory back in it along with some new extra elements. And what’s even more important is that even though it has a real 90’s metal feeling to it, it doesn’t sound like repetition at all and it’s great to listen to.

The album kicks off strong right from the beginning. The first track is a soft melodic one that creates an epic atmosphere around itself and that makes you curious for the rest of the record. The same epic atmosphere also matches the band name and the album. It’s a heavy album mostly filled with tight drum parts that keep the tempo going throughout the whole record.

The guitar riffs and vocals also don’t get left behind and they all seem to blend perfectly. Locust, the first single from this album and for the band, represents the band well. Heavy riffs and screams get blended with melodic vocals without becoming just too much. Locust is, along with Black Ocean, My Redemption and The World As One, one of the strongest tracks on Years In The Darkness.

A more refreshing song is Gone Tomorrow, which will be their second single. Again a great choice for a single as it shows the other side of Arkaea. The song is heavy but way softer than the other stuff, vocals are great and is even a little bit catchy. The lyrics are strong and the melodic vocals are mixed with some powerful screams during the bridge. The chorus is a bit less but fortunately it keeps on being a great song. Lucid Dreams, which starts with an amazing intro, follows the same direction as Gone Tomorrow.

Arkaea delivers with Years In The Darkness a great album filled with kicking guitar riffs, some brutal drum parts, powerful vocals and some great lyrics. Some songs remind me of bands like Spineshank but luckily they don’t fall back into the category where they become repeating. Vocals could be improved here and there a little bit, but improvement is never wrong of course. There could be more of a mix between the screaming and the singing part in my opinion, since that is one of the things that make Arkaea a powerful band. In any case, they did make me curious to hear how they will sound like and I definitely recommend Years In The Darkness.

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