As soon as opening song “Eternal Chain” starts my ears are extra alert, my brain goes in high alert and my pleasure meter goes to maximum. The way that RETURN TO DARKNESS has written and plays this song is almost addictive. With a riff that is JUDAS PRIEST worthy and some bridges that have ANTHRAX written all over it, with vocals that sound good when sung solo and beautiful when done in harmony, I feel it is the perfect opening of an album. then when “Pain” sets in, I get that familiar feeling again of hearing bits of FLOTSAM & JETSAM mixed with yet again ANTHRAX, I know I’m going to listen to an album with music that suits my taste in every sense of the word. And it does, as these guys from Rockland County, New York make the sort of Thrash Metal that is organised, structured, but most of all well thought through.

The band actually started out in 1990 under a different name, which was OUT OF DARKNESS. They kept that moniker going for some five plus years, before having to accept that they weren’t going anywhere soon. So it was from out of nowhere that in 2022 they came back as RETURN TO DARKNESS and released this album “Eternal” themselves. And it probably has made some impact somewhere, as the labels Tribunal Records and Divebomb Records decided to work together in rereleasing this album worldwide. And after having given this album a few listens, I have to say that I am very glad they did. Plus, it gives us at METAL TEMPLE the opportunity to finally review an album that would have deserved it when it was fist put out to the audience.

Because if you haven’t deduced that after the first paragraph, I really like what I am hearing from RETURN TO DARKNESS on “Eternal”. Let me state it like this; a song like “I Remember” is for the most part one that would have fit on “South Of Heaven”. Yes, there is a bit of SLAYER there. I also here some Paul Baloff (R.I.P.) in the way some of the lyrics are pronounced and articulated. The big difference being that unlike the ex-EXODUS singer the man Ron Roshong really can sing. But relax, what RETURN TO DARKNESS does is be themselves, to play the kind of music they like, without trying to emulate or copy their peers in any way or form. And what they have produced has been brought together on “Eternal”. Bloody good stuff, if you ask me.