Dark Meditation hails from the faraway and mystical lands of Seattle, Washington, a place of long rains and a wall stuck with a bunch of chewing gum. A few years removed from their debut album, ‘Polluted Temples’, they return in force with their brand new EP ‘Where the Darkness Bleeds’. I had never heard of the band before our esteemed leader, Rob, sent me the link to their album on The NWOTHM Full Albums YouTube channel, so this will be a dive straight into the deep end for me.

Review

Beginning with “Taking Solace”, an instrumental introduction. Some dissonant distortion and slow Sabbathy riffs, lightly interweaved with silky smooth acoustic guitarwork. The overall music in this one is minor, but it does a wonderful job of setting up an atmosphere for the EP. My imagination sent me to fjords and moss covered forests, but most things send me there.

“I Am the Hunter” followed suit with the distortion coming to an almost gothic crescendo, paired well with some stellar drumming and a nice almost trance-like groove. Musically, I could best describe it as a slightly slowed-down The Night Eternal, as the vocal styles of Dark Meditation’s Vick are quite similar to those of TNE’s Baum. A nice mid-song bridge however reminded me more of the stuff found in late 90s/early 00s gothic metal like Lacuna Coil.

“Call to the Beast” on the other hand kicked off with a very Andy LaRoque reminiscent riff. Ooh, this one was so damn good. The chorus infected me like a virus and it never let go. I adored the vocals in this one above all others, but once more I have to shout out the drumming and bass work, and the guitars are gnarly in all the best ways. Even the solo is very much Mercyful Fate/King Diamond inspired, and that’s a sound that I don’t think will ever tire me. 3 songs in and we have 3 songs each with wildly different vibes to them, and all drawn from different pools of influence. Variety is the spice of life.

“Hidden Daggers” was more guitar and riff driven than the last few tracks, and boy were those riffs divine. I’m not entirely sure who this one reminded me of, maybe a bit of Danzig, but there’s a thrash/speed metal band right there in the canals of my ears. While I didn’t find this one as definitively rad as the last one, this was still a damn good song. Also, possibly a bit of new-wave or deathrock thrown in there too for influences, I was really trying to pinpoint it.

“Bleeding Darkness” had a sublime bassline to kick off an almost psychedelic opening to the penultimate track, like something from Blood Ceremony or Hawkwind. I was really feeling some of the Danzig here (the guy, not so much the band) in Vick’s vocal delivery. This one was a much more melancholic affair than the rest of the EP, and that made it stand on its own. Ooh, I adore the riff sequence near the end, you’ll know it when you hear it 😉

“Thorned Gods & Honeyed Blades” was an automatic 10/10 for the title alone, and served as a (mostly) instrumental/ambient accompaniment to end the EP. I say mostly instrumental/ambient, because there was a discordant, almost like a eulogy, spoken word piece that I found haunting and strangely calming. A very foreboding way to end the EP, perchance a teaser for the next album?

Conclusion

This was a pleasant surprise! I think these blind dives are my favorite part of this gig, just jumping in head first. Maybe I’ll hit my head on the diving board, or maybe I’ll dive a perfect 10. Either way, I’ll drown (I can’t swim). It’s hard to explain exactly what connected with me about this release, but it did, and that’s all that matters in the end. With influences from practically every corner of rock n roll and metal, Dark Meditation put out an EP that was more varied than most albums. As I said at the outset, I went into this one completely blind, and I definitely have to hear Polluted Temples now.

TheNwothm Score: 9/10

Links

Bandcamp: https://darkmeditation.bandcamp.com/album/where-the-darkness-bleeds

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Darkmeditation/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darkmeditation206/

Label: Satanik Royalty Records