In genres such as thrash it's hard not to compare every new and modern band you listen to with the fathers of the genre back in the 80's. For example it's obvious that Suicidal Angels have taken a lot of inspiration from Slayer, while Trench Hell take a lot from Celtic Frost and the like. But with Dark Entropy there aren't any obvious inspirations from the 80's bands, and they're one of the few newer thrash bands that aren't revivalists. In short Dark Entropy, who formed in Chicago in 2008, is a modern thrash band with some minor groove influences.
But this does not speak for itself. A band obviously isn't good just because they don't sound exactly like one of the big four. Their hitherto only release, the 2011 Demo, offers some fairly low-tempo thrash metal with a few mildly enjoyable, but ultimately mediocre, Testament-ish riffs. They basically took the Thrash 101 and followed it to precision, making for some very predictable groove-infused thrash metal with simple verse/chorus/verse structure.
Alas, I cannot push back this subject any further. I have to talk about the vocals. When I started listening to the demo, FEAR comes on with its ponderously chugging guitar leads and I thought this was gonna be "just another thrash band". Instead I got "just another thrash band, but with terrible vocals". Not only are they poorly done in general, the singer is completely out of tune and, to me, sounds tonedeaf. I don't think he hit a single note right in the first song.
Whenever the vocals just follow a simple roaring pattern in just a single tone the vocals aren't half bad, but when he tries out some melodies and stuff like that it just falls through completely and ruins any enjoyability the track might have had.
Lyrically Dark Entropy have a long way to go. The lyrics are just so completely dull and typical that I would've preferred unintelligible, mindless groaning and screaming. The 13 year old me would probably have thought stuff like "Marching side by side, no where can you hide" was witty and intelligent, but nowadays material like that just doesn't cut it for me.
Dark Entropy is a 5-man band, but to be honest it doesn't really show on the demo. Only once or twice could I tell that there were two guitarists, and I feel that if you're gonna have two in a band you might aswell utilize it better. The quintet just don't reach the full potential of having two guitarists - They could've had a lot more variety by playing harmonics or other stuff I won't even begin to talk about, but instead it's completely indiscernable and unnecesarry.
Instrumentally Dark Entropy have their moments with some fairly powerful parts in tracks like Sins of our Fathers, but listening to their 2011 demo won't feel like the first time you listen to Sepultura or Metallica, and it certainly won't recreate the same feel of empowering invigoration. 4/10 guitars for unoriginal boredom.
Tracklist:
1. FEAR
2. Broken Night
3. Enlisted in Suicide
4. Sins of our Fathers
DARK ENTROPY official site
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