The gothic Metal band DARKSEED was formed in 1992 and since then they have released many albums, undergone many lineup changes throughout the years, have experimented much with their style using female vocals, electro-industrial elements, 'death' vocals and pretty much anything else that you can imagine a gothic Rock/Metal band can use in their music. However, DARKSEED never really managed to release an impressive album and although they had some good moments they never gained much attention from the fans of the genre no matter what they did. The band broke up in 2006 when Stefan Hertrich (lead vocals) and Martin Motnik (bass) left, but in 2008 the band reunited with Harald Winkler as their lead vocalist (was performing backing vocals and drums during 1992-1996 for them). Now the band has recently released their 8^th studio album entitled "Poison Awaits" which is their first record since the reunion.

"Poison Awaits" is trying to follow a more mainstream path making a record as less heavy as it can be for gothic Metal and focusing on simple riffs and catchy choruses. The band almost exclusively uses clean vocals and we rarely find some more harsh, heavier Metal vocals. Typical gothic Rock riffs are based mostly on power chords, strong choruses and keyboards, with many electro and industrial elements having a very important role especially in the first 4-5 songs and less in the next ones in which they are not so much up in the front. After listening to a couple of songs I started to think that I was listening to the same songs again and again. OK, of course the songs are not the same but their music is following the safest path possible and becomes very predictable leading to a boring and indifferent result. Every song follows the same pattern with mediocre riffs, some keyboard melodies and strong & really good choruses but unfortunately even most of them look pretty much alike.

"Poison Awaits" is a typical album for the genre, constructed in the safest possible way and becomes really predictable. The only thing that saves some of the album is the choruses. So, for the majority of the gothic Metal fans that have high requirements and have listened to so many great gothic Metal albums, this release has nothing more to give.