It seems that since several labels decided to turn to digital promotion of their releases, they stopped taking care of their work. I am saying all these because once again, I got a digital promo that made me search the internet without finding something helpful. Just a pdf file that mentioned the tracklisting, with the one being what I have written above and the other containing 12 tracks! Let me add that I also found one on the net that it should contain 13 tracks! Anyway, what I listened to, was an 11-song album, so that's what I am going to review.

I guess that if you are reading this review you already know who these guys are. You got it right, one of the most successful Death Metal bands to emerge from the Florida scene ever! After a just good album and an EP that still seems meaningless to me, OBITUARY return with their 8th studio album. Let's see what we've got here...

If you have read my review on Xecutioner's Return (or have listened to the album), you will remember that OBITUARY tried to make a slight turn towards their old, rotten sound. Well, some of the rotten elements are here, too, but Darkest Day is more in the vein of Frozen In Time. More mid tempo, groovy and heavy as fuck! But still... Even though I loved Frozen In Time and the new album sounds like it, there is something missing. Something of that psycho atmosphere the Florida butchers used to have. Even the cover artwork seems like a RHAPSODY failure...

The production is once again solid as a rock, but this doesn't save the day, at least for me. All the latest Tardy releases (the last two OBITUARY albums and the TARDY BROTHERS release) are all in the same level. They are all good, but there is nothing that can send shivers down my spine. I sound too tragic, I know, and I want to make clear that Darkest Day is a really good album. It is just that it's not what I expected. Is the flame still alive?