Darkend – Viaticum (2024) – Review

For some reason, Black Metal has become one of the strongest genres on RMR. The inherent mystique and ungodly debauchery with its deadly siren song always seem to draw us near that particular black fire. It’s like this irresistible invitation out of the dark void from the Vampyre. Or, the deal with the devil, if you will. The invocation of dark spirits and worse daemons of the kinds even the horrible Aleister Crowley dared not speak of. In short, the RMR crew sports a driving force of trve dark souls with that strange blackened inhuman hunger.

Enter the Italians of Darkend. A band standing in for rituals and Congressus Cum Daemone. The Canticles of Shadows and Spiritual Resonance contained some of the unholiest metal to appear on RMR to date. And that bears some questions: Will Viaticum be able to follow the mighty footsteps of what came before? Or should we care at all? The dead need nourishment on their long last journey after all. The fiend will provide.

At first, the RMR crew wasn’t amused. Darkend‘s 2016 and 2019 pieces contained a darkly ominous and frankly menacing aura. Ritualistic Black Metal with a frosty bite that fascinated us to no end. So, here Viaticum takes off – and it’s like throwback Sunday. A sticky monolithic avalanche of ’90-style vile Black Metal relentlessly flooding our earphones. It’s a lo-fi fest of downturned guitars, heavy blast beats, subdued scratchy vocals, and thunderous war drums. The weirdness of Celtic Frost meets Gorgoroth’s gritty ways, that kind of thing. Been there, done that, tasted the writhing altar. Now where’s that next damn church to burn, right?

And yet. Somehow the old unease starts to take hold after a while. It’s all down in the blackened pit, of course. But Viaticum here displays an unholy hypnotic pull with its majestic airs and slow-motion invocations. Darkend also knew to give the good ol’ ’90s sound a little push and morph it into their very own potent version. A short tracklist of five songs that flow one into another like some noxious amalgamation from hell. And all that converges on a mid-tempo and often monumental mix of roaringly good riffs, razor-blade solos, and Animae‘s relentless rasp, anguished screams, snarls, and clears. A hot ‘n’ cold treatment of thoughtful and wicked monologues, cathedral and soaring soundscapes, and mystical ambient and slightly symphonic interludes that seem to emanate from the darkest corners Hades can muster.

Ultimately though, Viaticum turned into a complex yet astonishingly astute album. At first, the album sounds like total regression into the darkest corners the Scandinavian Black Metal movement of the now-defunct ’90s could cough up still. But then, suddenly, Darkend‘s old ritualistic prowess starts to appear and you’ll be sucked into that blackened void. A mix of grimy Black Metal, haunting melodics, and Dark Metal that brandishes its melancholic wares like the best of them.

The band served us with a truly gargantuan production with a gazillion moving parts that won’t gripe anywhere. But – it will show you its true colors only after a few (many) listens. And that’s a powerful and positive streak, but also one of the record’s main weaknesses. You see, not many Extreme Metal adepts will have the stamina to stay that long on what sounds like a traditional Scandinavian piece. And this may mean that the fan crowd will remain relatively limited and the band dangerously underrated. But something tells me that the folks over at Darkend won’t really care – at all.

So, in other words, the darkly glowing amusement with all fiendish objects on full display is back on track. This is Darkend in fine form, ready to ritualize anybody being unlucky enough to hit play. Because once you do, you’re lost. Now, where is that exit door. We need some light and fresh air, I can feel these teeth growing yet again. And that’s not a good sign.

Great record.

Ed’s note: And the record made it onto the 2024 Top 10 Records and the Malevolent 2024 Series. Congrats!

Record Rating: 8/10 | Label: Time To Kill Records | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 14 June 2024