DARKSTAR - HEART OF DARKNESS - 1999

I expected really much from this release, and maybe this is the reason that makes me feel a bit strange about it. Anyone who has got in touch with Dan Rock's music in Psychotic Waltz, Aslan, End Amen and Darkstar, can understand the reason I expected that much. "Heart Of Darkness" contains many exceptional moments, that's for sure. And it also includes some really personal meanings and moments, both musically and lyrically, which, at no doubt, make it an album suitable for these specific moments of the day that you feel in need of such mind-soothing music. Just like everything Dan did before, isn't it so? The problem is, that there's some stuff in here that doesn't fit to the expectations we all had. Some vocal lines (especially when they get more aggressive than needed) and some light-weight melodies, seem to be rather out of the atmosphere of the album. An atmosphere that, in the songs that remain in the vein of the previous Darkstar album, the almost totally instrumental "Marching Into Oblivion", is still the mental medicine we all need. Hopefully, these moments are not that many to overpass the exceptional guitar work of Dan Rock (and, yes, Brian McAlpin, in the two songs that were featured in "Dark Millennium", too), the excellent sound quality, the haunting keys of Siggi Blasey, and the awesome artwork of Travis Smith and...H.R. Giger! Talking in general, the dedicated fans of Waltz who had heard part of this album in the "Dark Millennium" compilation, will find some more new material to satisfy their needs. And the ones who have no idea about Darkstar or Waltz, can safely begin their trip from here, enjoy this album, and then end up with their eyes, ears, mouth and mind wide open from surprise, in front of the previous releases of these groups.
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