Desultory – Darkness Falls (The Early Years)

Another interesting and different release from Darkness Shall Rise Productions. For the first time ever, they release a compilation on LP/CD/3-MC box and digital gathering the three demos from melodic death metal pioneers – Desultory. I received a promo CD for the purpose of writing a review of this compilation entitled, Darkness Falls (The Early Years).

The Swedes from Desultory are generally considered to be one of the pioneers/trailblazers of melodic death metal, but this early works showcases them playing fast-paced thrash metal with additional elements old-school death metal. Darkness Falls (The Early Years) has been recorded in ‘Sunlight Studios’ Stockholm/Sweden in 1990/1991/1992. The whole thing was mastered from the original tapes by Patrick W. Engel at ‘Temple of Disharmony’ in February 2024.

Back to the CD itself; Darkness Falls (The Early Years) is actually a demo compilation containing 10 tracks from band’s first three demos, namely; From Beyond from 1990, Death Unfolds from 1991 and finally Visions from 1992. From Beyond opens with “Eternal Darkness” which features this nice mixture of thrash and death metal that I mentioned earlier. It’s quite reminiscent of early work from Kreator, Sodom and similar bands. The track offers the brilliant guitar work of Stefan Pöge, delivering some fine melodies, enriching and transitioning of their sound towards what later would be known as ‘Swedish melodic death metal’. The following one called “The Awakening” is another classic death/thrash metal assault which showscases some excellent vocal delivery of Klas Morberg, a very matured drum work of Thomas Johnson, and again some fine lead melodies of Stefan Pöge. I’m well aware it was done unintentionally back in 1991, but the next two tracks, namely, “Cease To Exist” and “Insanity”, are quite similar in its build-up, featuring some high-quality songwriting, and both perfectly leading to their second demo, Death Unfolds.

On the opening track from Death Unfolds, entitled “Passed Away” a further development in their sound is evident, including more low-tuned guitars, harsher vocals, and uptempo beats, while still mantaining this unique and rather perfect balance between thrash and death metal. “The Chill Within” is a real banger and is one of the best tracks on this release. I like the overall rough yet charming transition towards what we later would call ‘a typical Swedish melodic death metal’, with down-tuned guitar riffs, melodic and technically proficient guitar lines, and overall nice sense for melody. Self-titled “Death Unfolds” offers another perfect example of this sophisticated balance between death and thrash with additional classic heavy metal influences.

Simply titled Visions, is band’s third demo from 1992, and it logically continues where Death Unfolds ended less than a year before. Thus, Visions is building on the fundament laid out on its predecessor, while unfolding some new ingredients. Both “Forever Gone” and “Depression” are fine-tuned tracks with brilliant songwriting. The same can be said for the closing “Visions”, where “Depression” and “Visions” have this superb instrumentation with highly melodic and harmonized guitar riffs and solos, and occasional high-pitched shrieked vocals. When it comes to the sound quality, there’s no doubt that the latest demo Visions has the strongest production of their demos, giving the songs that certain extra punch.

In addition to the pretty solid musical content guys from Darkness Shall Rise have included a long interview with Klas Morberg, especially conducted for this demo compilation. They’ve also enriched Darkness Falls (The Early Years) by the very cool and eye-catching old-school cover and general improvement in the quality of the sound makes this release a respectful appreciation of Desultory’s early works and a great salute to a band that is no longer active.

For fans of Desultory this is a mandatory release, but I will also recommend this compilation to any fans of old-school thrash/death metal in the vein of early Kreator, Sodom, Sepultura, Merciless, Testament and other leading scene acts from the late 80s and early 90s.

For additional info on this nice compilation with a touch of nostalgia, then visit https://desultorydarknessshallrise.bandcamp.com/album/darkness-falls-the-early-years or just take a listen to the whole recording below.