In the present time, it's becoming more and more difficult to create and have a personal way of sounding. Maybe this is the main difficulty that leads many to put all their energies in creating moldy and dead forms of music (those clones from the 70s and 80s that we all have to deal sometimes). But still are left some courageous, those who are not conformists, that dare to go forward and to create something different. In Brazil, many names arise every day. DARKTOWER, from Rio de Janeiro, is one of the spearheads of the country in the Extreme Metal scene. Their new work, "Eight Spears", is a clear proof of my words, a statement that chaos and creation can be united to create excellent music.

They matured and evolved a lot since "...Of Chaos and Ascension" (from 2013), but their music improved in many ways that we couldn't expect. It's not simply a Black/Death Metal band, but their idea of fusing elements from Extreme Metal styles with melodies from traditional Heavy Metal gained a lot of musical consistence. After some changes on band's line up, the vocals got better in all aspects (because F, Gonçalves knows how to use many different kinds of tunes of his voice), the guitars are perfect, due the diversity of melodies on riffs and solos (R. Casotto brought a great range of different melodic influences with him, and he recorded all guitar parts of the album), the rhythmic kitchen evolved extremely (R. Ferreira moved from drums to bass guitar, and J. Secca entered on his place, and they are play in a strong, technical and brutally heavy way). But "Eight Spears" cannot be seeing as just an improvement of the first album, but the expanding of frontiers, and they embraced this new form with body, mind and souls.

The band took the duties of the production along Fernando Campos (who made the mixing as well) at AM Studio, on Rio de Janeiro, and the mastering was done by the hands of George Bokos (ex-ROTTING CHRIST, STONE COLD DEAD) at Grindhouse Studio, on Athens. The result is a fine and aggressive sound quality, but keeping the musical instruments and vocals clear and with aggressive tunes. It's the perfect balance of clarity with a sinister and darkened atmosphere.

The artwork is a creation of Rodolfo Ferreira, and it's truly amazing, because it captured all the lyrical and musical aspects of "Eight Spears," and the use of few colors pallets helped a lot to fit on their musical purposes. The album has many invited guests on vocals: Felipe Eregion from UNEARTHLY on "Destroy the House of Há'Shem", Guilherme Sevens from PAINSIDE on "The Legion Marches On", Pedrito Hildebrando from VOCIFERATUS on "Eight Spears", and Rodrigo Garm of PAGAN THRONE on "Blood Harvest," and the orchestrations were done by Rômulo Pirozzi, DARKTOWER's former bassist.

The five Specters of Anne created a great masterpiece on "Eight Spears", but some songs for you to start to listening to: the sinister brutality of the chaotic "Destroy the House of Ha'shem" (the first Single of the album, showing a technical and somber song, with very good chorus and vocal parts), the somber war march "The Legion Marches On" (the harsh and brutal approach of the song is contrasted by excellent melodies created by the guitars, one of the aspects of the band that improved a lot), the evident technical insight used on "Nameless Servants of Damnation" (once more the melodic elements are present), the Thrash Metal guitar riffs on "On Darkest Wings", the sinister and aggressive melodies of "Haeretic" (a great work from bass guitar and drums can be heard, but the melodies are used to create a funereal and darkened atmosphere), and the darkened energy that flows from "Eight Spears" and "Blood Harvest", both creating that sensation that the band is on a great and creative moment, due the excellent parts of the rhythmic session, very good guitar parts and excellent vocals.

So, let yourself be drowned by the chaotic and darkened essence of "Eight Spears" and you'll find what the Specters from DARKTOWER are about.

See the Rise...