To any and all fans of DEAD SUNDAY, be warned!  They are still making music, but no longer as DEAD SUNDAY.  You should now call them BOSPARANS FALL, and they've released their first ever full-length album under that name.  Interestingly, between 2014 and 2021 (the year they officially changed their name), the band never released a full album.  In other words, this is their first album ever.  This underground metal band hails from Baden-Württemberg in Germany and are now shifting from their previous old-school Death Metal sound to Melodic Death, their new album "Gotterspiel: Dunkle Zeiten" being a perfect example of this.  The album isn't long at all-only 41 minutes-and the lyrics are in German, so if you don't mind putting them through a translation tool (unless you're fluent in German already), then listening to this record should be no trouble at all.

Released on May 26th of this year, "Gotterspiel: Dunkle Zeiten" is a concept album based on the German role-playing game "Das Schwarze Auge," which literally translates as "The Black Eye" or "The Dark Eye" in English.  Concepts aside, the first track of the album-which ironically is titled in English as "Intro"–is an instrumental track that ends in the sound of war drums being beaten.  The next track "Dunkle Zeiten," or "dark times" in English, gives us the melodic death metal we expect.  The guitar riffs from Patrick and Berndte are as melodic as can be, adding to the fantasy theme of the album.  The bass is non-existent unfortunately, since all the songs on "Gotterspiel: Dunkle Zeiten" were created and recorded without a bassist.  As for the drumming from Yannick on this track, I found it quite mediocre without hearing any double bass patterns or a single blast beat sequence.  Jonas's vocals were a different story, since he maintained a menacing low-pitched growl.  Measured at 5 minutes and 36 seconds as the longest track on the album, "Dunkle Zeiten" was a mediocre but acceptable start.

The music gets a little more intense on the next track "Bosparans Zinnen." What stuck out to me the most was while Yannick still didn't use any blast beats, his drumming style took on more of a faster, thrash-like rhythm, and the double bass came through for the first time.  If anybody gets disappointed with the lack of double bass in "Dunkle Zeiten," those disappointments will be quelled on this track.  Now the third track "Rondra" is a bit shorter in length, compared to "Dunkle Zeiten" at about 5 ½ minutes and "Bosparans Zinnen" at 4 minutes.  It's also not terribly different from the previous songs, with the exception of the closing segment of classical music, which I found very fitting to the album.  Melodic Death Metal is characterized by distorted and harmonized guitar riffs, low-pitched growls and/or high-pitched screams, and rapid double bass pedals with occasional blast beats.  In BOSPARANS FALL's case, they infuse most of these elements along with the use of classical music, acoustic instruments, and synthesizers.  This is especially the case on future tracks like "Praios" and "Kampf un Norbeneck."

Although the instrumentals can get mediocre at times throughout the album, they absolutely fit the description of Melodic Death Metal.  The production was also great for the most part, but the other members' instruments sometimes drowned out Jonas's vocals.  Since the lyrics are already in a foreign language, this makes it difficult to understand or interpret the words.  This is the only part where the production quality falls short.  To conclude, "Gotterspiel: Dunkle Zeiten" is a good album for fans of Melodic Death Metal, especially those who enjoy fantasy role-playing games.