Chromatic Dark
Obsidious (demo)

July 2007
Released: 2006, Self-released
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

Chromatic Dark, this 5-piece melodic death metal band, hails from the Finnish capital of metal, Oulu. The band was started in 2003, and after suffering from several line-up changes over the years, a stable line-up was finally found that is actually ´almost´ the one that recorded the band´s 1st demo, OBSIDIOUS, in late 2006 (only the bassist has been changed to another).



Musically Chromatic Dark wade in those dark waters where such Swedish greats as Dark Tranquillity and In Flames started their careers as a demo act back in the day. However, Chromatic Dark has wisely added a fair injection from the pool of dark metal into their own brand of melodic death metal approach; occasionally reminding me of Thy Serpent here and there at some places. The brand of melo-death metal Chromatic Dark perform on their very promising 4-song demo, obviously should appeal to most of melo-death fans - especially the ones that are familiar with the early melo-death metal scene that came from Gothenburg´s direction in early ´90s. The guitar work in the band earns its special mention for a totally mind-warping and kick-ass delivery - and honourable mention also belongs to the band´s vocalist Jussi whom vocal performance on OBSIDIOUS actually reminds one of Stanne´s vocals in Dark Tranquillity quite a bit. His voice is a bit darker than Mikael’s though which also does more justice to the overall dark´ish atmosphere of their songs. Also, the synth parts (programmed by a guy called Jussi K.) in the songs fit surprisingly well to support the other instruments, creating one pleasing wholeness that surely gets its ´horns up´ while the songs progress on, from one song to another.



A very good start from a relatively unknown metal act from Finland. More of the same calibre material in the future and I´m sure, chances are they will go far with their stuff. Time will naturally tell…