Customer Reviews

Darkness Foretold

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Darkness Foretold is the re-release of American death metal band Jungle Rot's 1998 EP through their new label Crash Music. The CD consists of seven tracks, three of which are cover songs by Sodom, Slayer, and Carnivore. The other three pieces are live renditions and one of them is a new track.

The Sodom cover "Agent Orange" has an excellent drum performance with awesome tone. The guitar work is good too, but it's mostly the guttural vocals of Dave Matrise that distinguishes the piece from typical German thrash metal. Matrise's vocals are deep and low, and very angry. The drumming is fast and powerful. The rhythms are carried out well enough, but on the following piece "Fight 'Til Death", originally a song by Slayer, the band also gets to display their lead guitar work. And the drumming is once again top notch. The Carnivore cover "Jesus [...]" is formulated by amazing riffs, superb drumming, and European death metal-style vocals. Unlike Cannibal Corpse or Suffocation, Jungle Rot's vocals fall more in the European death metal territory. The title track was the only new track when they released this EP. It is full of brutal riffs, pummeling drums, low growls and everything else a death metal song should encompass. The live songs are short and to the point. No riff is wasted in favour of long, drawn-out instrumental passages. However, the sound quality is significantly weaker than their studio-recorded material. Of the three songs, "Eternal Agony" seems to stand out for its technical edge and strange juxtapositions of grooves and melodies.

Not an essential disc unless you're a die-hard Jungle Rot fan. Otherwise I'd stick with their recent full-length albums.

this album is a rehash of their EP from 1998. it contains 3 covers, a new song, and live tracks. the new song is also on their 1998 CD, "Slaughter The Weak" Sodom, Slayer, and Type O Negative (the now defunct Carnivore) would be applauding right now. this is a shining light in the world of Death Metal.