Leaning towards a symphonic black-metal style tinged with some gothic-metal nuances, Darkside of Innocence’s debut full-length “Infernum Liberus EST” is heavily reminiscent of everyone’s favourite dark-romantic-black-metal outfit Cradle of Filth.Like the British act, the Portuguese group rely heavily on dark and tenebrous ambiences created by a massive use of keyboards and their interplay with an equally melodic and fierce guitar work. Their affection for the Filth is also noticeable in their varied vocal approach, counterbalancing the male shrieked black-metal voice there are gentle female gothic vocalizations and occasionally deep narrated vocal passages in a horror movie style. The band tries to balance some grim and harsh elements with the subtlety of their atmospheric passages, yet even at their most fervent mood, there’s a strong sense of melody and accessibility prevailing in their sound, which eventually might detract some of the most elitist followers of black-metal. The production values are also more than tolerable and decipherable than the grimmest and most common standards of black metal, yet there’s a horrible triggered drum click that renders their sound a somewhat bland and synthetic touch.
Overall, Darkside of Innocence are a promising act, already revealing some strong and mature compositional skills, even if in some sections they still have some refining to do and yeah they do need to distance themselves from the Filth’s shadow a bit further as well. (6/10)
David Alexandre
Band info: www.myspace.com/darksideofinnocence
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