EXISTENCE

Dark Suns second album Existence should be the kind of album that I love. It´s got all of the elements that I really like in prog metal. Clean singing, intricate heavy monumental riffs in the vein of Opeth and Katatonia and to top it of songs with experimental structures. The only problem is that when I finnish listening to Existence I´m not especially excited. I think Existence is a good album, but nothing more, which is a bit disappointing to me, as I had expected more from Dark Suns. Dark Suns debut album Swanlike was also a very mediocre affair and it was almost an Opeth clone. This time other influences are also present in Dark Suns music but I still think Opeth is the main influence. The swedish band Katatonia have obviously influenced Dark Suns too though with more experimental post rock structures in the songs.

The musicians are very good, so there is nothing to say here. Lead singer Nico Knappe has a pleasant voice and his accent is not a problem. It´s hardly hearable even though Dark Suns is a german band and the accent can sometimes be a problem with bands from Germany.

The music is a mix of heavy guitars and more mellow post rock passages. There are no growls on this album. Dark Suns left them behind on their debut album Swanlike which means the doom/ death influences are not as evident on Existence. The tempo is still slow to mid though. One of the things that irritate me a bit about Existence is the omnipresent use of keyboards throughout the album. This is what Opeth does so well. They use the keyboard sparsely. Dark Suns use it all the time, which means I get tired of it midway through the ( way too) long album. It´s just there in the background the whole time. Nothing spectacular it just gets on my nerves after a while. The songs are generally very long, and lots of things happen in every song which is really great and I´m entertained the whole time.

The sound quality is good, but I don´t like the production. I find it lifeless and quite frankly it leaves me cold. This is an aquired taste of course so judge yourself.

This is a good album though and I´ll rate it 3 stars. It´s not excellent in my book even though it has all the characteristica I normally enjoy.