Darken the Days- Stones (Polyram Music)

Darken the Days are from Albuquerque, New Mexico (I have some family there and lived there for a few years). I have known the bass player, Mike Garcia since the early 80s when he lived with one of my good friends, John Johnson and played in the band Durtie Blonde!  Since Facebook, you can catch up with people and find out what they do 20-30 years later! Anyway, Mike sent me this CD to check out and tell you more about. The band is a 6 piece band with two lead vocalists. The CD features 15 tracks in a bit over an hour and starts off with Between Me and Me. A spacey keyboard line is the intro before the metal begins. Musically this is a genre I don’t listen to at all, melodic heavy, moody metal. The drum sound is not to my taste and the drums are very loud in the mix at times but I think a lot of metal is mixed like this today? No real guitar solo on this track, lots of riff and the track ends like it started. All held Dear has a more heavy riff to start and then the guitars disappear and you have the vocal and bass, but then the aggressive riff comes back.  Good heavy rocking groove and this track cruises directly into My Shame, which is quite similar with it’s melodic parts and then heavy riffs but a bit slower with some lead guitar and very intense drumming at the end. Dirty Little Hands is a more punky track a bit like Anthrax? Stones is another melodic metal track, where again, the vocals are really the main focus of all the bands songs. Not a lot of instrumental parts or solos. Very vocal driven metal. A lot of cool riffs and parts in many of the songs. Hell Bound is a bit slower and a more heavy riff. Fear of the Unknown starts as a ballad and again some pad keyboards float into the sound making it a bit more spacey. It later gets heavy and has a sort of “wow woooow” sing along part as well and some nice dual harmony wah guitar parts as well. Don’t want that for Me starts with a short drum solo then a really heavy riff kicks in and interspersed with some bass. Lyrics seem very personal on this one. There are 6 more tracks from mid paced Again to the really intense Whatever May Be (a more growly vocal), to ballad Dig your Grave (also gets heavy), Devil in the Details- pure metal with a bit of stoner groove thrown in, it’s not me Its You starts with a great bass line before the metallic riff takes hold.. Round is the last song…. Are these guys like Alter Bridge?? Maybe.. something like that. I don’t listen to modern metal stuff at all. 

Check out the video below and this will give you a feel for the music. Seems they are a great and powerful live band.

https://www.facebook.com/DarkenTheDay/

http://polyrammusic.com/