I'm not even gonna go into this album in my introduction, Symphonic Death Metal from a band called DARK LUNACY out of Italy. The album is called "The Rain After the Snow" and is released by Fuel Records, for anyone who knows any Death Metal out of Italy at this point you're probably already sold on this album and don't need me to continue. For those of you who somehow don't know some of the countries bands like FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE and HOUR OF PENANCE, well, let's begin to talk about DARK LUNACY.

With a good amount of likes on Facebook, I'm surprised this is my first interaction with this band, especially considering their style. Opening with a purely violin intro in "Ab Umbra Lumen" before the heavy instrumentals kick in, you already get a taste of the classical inspiration of this album, the pacing of this song is a bit strange hearing the breaks in the riff makes it hard to judge when it might change. The pace slows down a bit for the chorus and the symphonic sounds take over a bit more as their mostly hidden throughout the other portions of the song. "Precious Things", which is a few songs down in the album is a huge change in tempo, slowing down completely and is mostly just symphonic. It's a very welcome break and I think gives the listener a nice breather and if their attention started to sway will definitely pull them back in instantly.

"Tide of My Heart" brings the speed back up to pace with the rest of the album and actually might be one of the most hectic songs throughout the album as the second riff is far more chaotic and "random" than anything up to this point, almost having an early CARCASS feel to it. Shortly after for the chorus the riff slows and a piano takes centre stage creating a nice contrast with the harsh vocals that DARK LUNACY absolutely dominate. To close the album out is a slow piano song, "Fragments of a Broken Dream" there's not much to mention here other than this song demonstrates the emotion that orchestration has to offer. I love this album and I think the only setback it has is it doesn't let the orchestration come through enough like it does in some of the bands past work. After looking back this is probably DARK LUNACY's most melodic and least symphonic album that they released. I've fallen in love with the band's sound simply from this album and it made me go back and rewrite this entire thing and even though this is the band's sixth release, I'm hoping I can get a copy of every one of their albums, that's how much weight this album holds. All i can do is suggest if you're a Symphonic or Melodic Death Metal fan, check out "The Rain After the Snow", you will love this album.