I'm not much of a fan of Emo Metal unfortunately. I can appreciate the genre and the massive following they have but rarely I am struck by one of the genre songs. I know the massive success from bands like MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE and LINKIN PARK, but only a handful of tracks actually got my ears. The melodramatic vocals mixed with guttural vocals, the dropped tuned guitars, the semi electronic and full of triggers drumming, have never been my cup of tea, but I always try to praise the effort of any band in any style in my reviews as I believe I am able to identify the craftsmanship. This preface is to introduce another band from California that dwells in the Emo Metal territory and they are called THE DARK.

I will start with the name that despite being cool, is not very original as it took me a number of bands called THE DARK to find the correct one. They are releasing their first EP entitled The Dark and they have been recently discovered by the German label Arising Empire. The Ep has 5 tracks and starts with all the ingredients mentioned before as you can hear in the first one “Chemical” that also has a video on the tubes. One thing I have to say about Emo Metal is that they usually have amazing singers and this band singer Craig Johns Jr is no different. Powerful high notes with melodic suffering passages and some guttural, the guy can do it all. A lot of electronic elements are used in the tracks like in “Slip Away” that has also a nice melody and a syncopated rhythm provided by drummer Derek Vautrinot. The production is quite good and the songs are well structured on this EP. Tracks like “Head Of The Snake” and the industrial “Circles”, will delight the fans of the genre for sure and also attract fans of bands like SISTERS OF MERCY or MUSE as they also have some elements of Goth and alternative progressive Rock.

I would like to give credit to bass player Nick Goins that can be heard away from the guitars for a moment in the last track “In Heaven There’s Nothing To See” that for me is the best of the EP with a MARYLIN MASON vibe and the extremely have guitars from Alan Ashby, that actually played on the band OF MICE AND MAN. A standard band for weird tuning songs. Overall, I like it! Impressive first release of a very energetic band with good songs and performance. I am still the old school Metal head that craves for a guitar solo but I am getting to understand this genre a little more and appreciate what it has to offer. The EP cover is also cool.