{"id":105696,"date":"2025-11-28T00:00:56","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T00:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=105696"},"modified":"2025-12-17T10:05:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T10:05:26","slug":"album-review-darklon-mind-reaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-darklon-mind-reaper\/","title":{"rendered":"DARKLON &#8211; Mind Reaper (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"title2\"><strong>DARKLON<br \/>\nMind Reaper<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" height=\"3\"><br \/>\n<span class=\"title3\"><span style=\"color: #c80000;\">No Remorse (2025)<\/span><br \/>\n<strong>Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"image floatedright\">\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/darklon_mindreaper.jpg\" height=\"200\" width=\"200\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"right\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>With their third studio album, Greek metallers Darklon ensures that their armour still glistens like the sun. With swords and instruments raised high, the Athens-based combo is now armed with a new vocalist in the form of Billy \u201cThe Kid\u201d Chrepas (Wildfire). Chrepas replaces Nikos Migus A. who had been with the band since 2019. For any fans concerned about the change, I\u2019d just like to reassure you that Chrepas does an admirable job, slotting nicely with his clear yet powerful tones.<\/p>\n<p>Darklon are quite a force, blending power metal and traditional metal smoothly, occasionally racing towards a thrashier stance. Greece is one of the strongest nations when it comes to producing high quality metal and when opening song \u2018In The Abyss\u2019 strides confidently into earshot you know you\u2019re in for a sizzling ride. Kras D.K. (aka Dave K. Krasonis) is a real star on the axe, swirling his solos through rings of fiery riffs as the title cut gallops like a dazzling combination of Metal Church and Fates Warning, but with a dousing of Euro power metal.<\/p>\n<p>Less icy than I expected, the album thaws quickly due to its scorching guitar work, while any remaining chunks of ice are shattered by the drums of Geor Kana who is a beast on the slower menace of \u2018Powercast\u2019 and the strident \u2018Shockwave\u2019. The band\u2019s more eccentric and theatrical side comes to the fore on \u2018The Mad Messiah\u2019 which sits slap bang in the middle of the album. Gothic organ and moody narration leads us into an epic smorgasbord of dazzling leads and burning thrash aesthetics.<\/p>\n<p>As Chrepas emerges from the smoke I\u2019m reminded of the glinting potency of Helloween as the clan effortlessly drives headlong into Eurogoth settings constructed of robust Greek steel. I\u2019m thankful though that <em>Mind Reaper<\/em> is bereft of contemporary gloss, because although the production is clean there&#8217;s still that emphasis on a late 80s and early 90s coating hinting at bands like Artch, Crimson Glory and Fates Warning, although less progressive.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DARKLON Mind Reaper No Remorse (2025) Rating: 8\/10 With their third studio album, Greek metallers Darklon ensures that their armour still glistens like the sun. With swords and instruments raised high, the Athens-based combo is now armed with a new vocalist in the form of Billy \u201cThe Kid\u201d Chrepas (Wildfire). Chrepas replaces Nikos Migus A. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5352],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-darklon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105697,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105696\/revisions\/105697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}