Hailing from the Black Country of England, the birthplace of Heavy Metal itself, DARK FOREST have unleashed their new album "The Awakening", with a refined and epic sound.

Starting off with the title track "The Awakening", the band builds up atmosphere for the album with some cool sounds, before a dramatic sounding voice clip gives us a small speech before the song kicks into motion with epic lead guitars over a great sounding beat. The lead vocals are powerful and to the point, with a Power Metal style to them. The song gets things going rather well and lets you know what to expect from this album; some great heavy metal sounds!

There's plenty on offer from this release, from the fast Power Metal attack of "Sacred Signs" to the more NWOBHM-esque sound of "The Last Season". The band really shows off its ability to play their instruments but also their skills in regards to songwriting, able to keep the songs focussed and hold great choruses together!

The band has a lot of melodic playing involved and blends this well with heavier sounds such as on songs like "Rise Like Lions" with its heavy galloping sound combined with soaring vocals and guitar harmonies, and "Turning Of The Tides" which mixes double bass drumming seamlessly with more epic guitar sounds.

The production on the album is spot on, with plenty of loudness and chunky guitars, yet with a clarity not always heard of in metal. A big plus is that the bass is nice and audible on this release, and well worth it too because there's some great playing involved, and it's becoming a rare thing to have bass guitar parts that the listener can hear and appreciate.

Overall this is a fantastic third album from a band that clearly knows exactly what it's doing and should do really well to solidify their reputation on the global scene as well as in the UK, where epic sounding Metal is seeing a resurgence at the moment.