{"id":71738,"date":"2018-08-24T00:00:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-24T00:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=71738"},"modified":"2018-08-25T02:50:18","modified_gmt":"2018-08-25T02:50:18","slug":"album-review-dark-millennium-when-oceans-collide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-dark-millennium-when-oceans-collide\/","title":{"rendered":"DARK MILLENNIUM – Where Oceans Collide (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

DARK MILLENNIUM
Where Oceans Collide<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nMassacre (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Massacre Records is certainly a label that knows no boundaries with what it signs up and releases; over the years I\u2019ve reviewed a lot of stuff from these guys, whether in the form of blazing Euro power metal to straight up traditional metal, on to black metal and back to folk-inspired metal and thrash.<\/p>\n

And now we have Germany\u2019s Dark Millennium, a progressive extreme metal act by design who formed way back in 1989. But after just two records \u2013 Ashore The Celestial Burden<\/em> (1992) and Diana Read Peace<\/em> (1993) \u2013 the combo split. Then in 2016 they made their welcome return, signalling their re-emergence with the opus Midnight In The Void<\/em>, and now, two years later, we have the impressive Where Oceans Collide<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Dark Millennium is a band with a sound that is hard to pin down; imagine a rather stark and angular framework sneering with arrogance but offering abrasive shreds, scornful icy blasts, technical flourishes and an all-round scathing mix of black \/ death \/ thrash \/ doom metal. The band may have undergone a few line-up changes since their inception, but that\u2019s never caused any sign of deviation as Dark Millennium again embark on dark, brooding, atmospheric passages mixed with sharp yet heavy and concise rumbles of swagger.<\/p>\n

Where Oceans Collide<\/em> is very much a potent record full of brisk, yet jolting rhythmic structures, pulsating yet frosty blasts of jarring progression and yet all enclosed within a fully mocking, confident and seemingly poetic casing; the band never slipping out of those humourless, moody and glinting constructions.<\/p>\n

The vocals of Christian Mertens wouldn\u2019t seem out of place on a Teutonic thrash record or a black-death composition such is their snarling cocksure attitude, forever remaining a grisly scowl. But the rest of the band \u2013 Michael Burmann (guitar), Hilton Theissen (guitar), Gerold Kukulenz (bass and keyboards) and Andre Schaltenberg (drums) \u2013 construct such massive steely passages as they rumble steadily through colourless monstrosities such as \u2018Insubstantial\u2019 with sauntering motion; this vast and superior build being one of very much modern design, displaying at times technical architecture that looms as each riff trudges with cosmic ease.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the death \u2018n\u2019 doom metal flecks are all but fleeting. Instead, tracks such as \u2018Lovers Die\u2019 and \u2018Nights, Eternal\u2019 exist more so as examples of contemporary heavy metal which lives within a great Gothic shroud; the vocals acting as grimacing commandments to what are essentially spaced-out and glinting spectacles created by those cutting and efficient heavyweight riffs.<\/p>\n

The doomy scenarios do emerge, but not as one would expect. Instead, Dark Millennium display huge angles, where the sound is one of clean machinery and minimalist appearance even if what is actually going on is far deeper. Imagine if you will some new structural creation; space age yet ice cold white. And that\u2019s the feeling I get here as the band embarks onto thrashier climes with \u2018Moving Light\u2019, which wouldn\u2019t seem out of place on one of those dynamic yet later Destruction<\/a> or Sodom albums, such is the metallic menace.<\/p>\n

Where Oceans Collide<\/em> is a record sprinkled with some truly \u201cout there\u201d threads; from the peculiar aching doom-cum-black thrash assault of \u2018Flesh Is Weak\u2019 to the complex jarring of \u2018Jessica\u2019s Grave\u2019 which also rattles with thrashy intensity. But there are grey surprises around every corner; \u2018Diseases Decease\u2019 is a straight up misery rocker featuring a typically melodic Teutonic chorus and then thrashy hammering, while \u2018In Equilibrium\u2019 makes sure the temperature drops even further as the track develops into a dark simmering abyss of hissing cymbals and cutting jolts.<\/p>\n

Finally, album closer \u2018Across Oceans Of Souls\u2019 tinkles in poetic fashion. This one initially plays out with enough Gothic orchestration to put it in the soundtrack genre, and that\u2019s where it stays. The track is a moody, menacing yet beautiful masterpiece of eerie chimes and suspenseful throbs to make sure that we sleep with the brightest light on. But of course, nothing can really save us from the cold icy grip that Dark Millennium has placed around our shaking necks.<\/p>\n

Where Oceans Collide<\/em> is very much a modern metal record, but one that stands head and shoulders above so many due to its natural shifts and unforced paroxysms; the whole grandiose and melodious pit of blackness somehow unorthodox in its mesmeric grace.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DARK MILLENNIUMWhere Oceans Collide Massacre (2018)Rating: 9\/10 Massacre Records is certainly a label that knows no boundaries with what it signs up and releases; over the years I\u2019ve reviewed a lot of stuff from these guys, whether in the form of blazing Euro power metal to straight up traditional metal, on to black metal and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-dark-millennium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71738","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=71738"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71741,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71738\/revisions\/71741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}