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Paradise Lost with a more contemporary sound and songwriting approach is the feeling I found myself having after the first listen to Darkseeds latest longplayer. This is not meant in a negative way as Darkseed comes up with some memorable choruses and riffs which, judging from the recent promos I’ve received for review, seems to be the Achilles' heel of many gothic rock and metal bands of today. So Darkseed definitely gets my recommendation with the release of Ultimate Darkness and this release shows a goth metal band that surpasses the run-of-the–mill bands flooding the gothic metal scene.

I mentioned earlier that Ultimate Darkness reminded me a lot of Paradise Lost and this is mostly due to the vocal performance of Stefan Hertrich which sounds not unlike Nick Holmes around the Icon and Draconian Times-era in my ears. Not in the sense that Stefan Hertrich is a certified copycat as he varies his use of his vocals in many ways during Ultimate Darkness. But the two singers I’m comparing here just have the same sound to their vocals which makes me draw the comparison to Paradise Lost.

The music differs from Paradise Lost by having a more keyboard and electronic orientated focus which draws Dark Seed towards some of the more well known contemporary gothic rock and metal acts. But it’s not an excessive use of keyboards as heard with other gothic acts, even though the keyboard it still is quite apparent in the sound picture. By doing this Darkseed combines the heaviness of distorted guitars with melodic keyboard parts and sparks a winning combination on Ultimate Darkness.

This is definitely recommended to fans of gothic metal with this pretty solid release in the goth metal genre. So a solid grade of 4 [bordering on 5] from here to embrace the Ultimate Darkness that Darkseed has created.

DARKSEEDUltimate Darkness

DARKSEED
Ultimate Darkness