Darzamat
Solfernus Path

November 2009
Released: 2009, Massacre Records
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Alan Gilkeson

Their last album TRANSKARPATIA received much attention, considered by many critics as a prolific record, a master of the dirty (male) and clean (female) vocal-combo, and a vibrant mixture of Black Metal stylings with an ambient Gothic sound. It's a concoction they've attempted to perfect since the mid nineties, and not until the aforementioned record did they find much success with the various Metal commentators.



SOLFERNUS PATH continues where TRANSKARPATIA left off. Maybe featuring a tad less of the dirty vocals, emphasis more towards the elegant and powerful vocals from Nera, at least in structure, where Darzamat seem to concentrate on molding their songs so they crescendo with her vocals. Also, there's a bit more reliance on guitars for melody compared to the previous record, though the keyboards are still prominent, and some awesome Dimmu Borgir styled solos like on the tune 'Vote for Heresy'.



This is also a concept record of sorts, the story of a medical student who decides to leave the carnal world in search of deeper and darker ways. Still, the focus should be on the individual songs, each with a life of its own. However, that said, there remains a tendency for the tunes to bleed into one another, hard to follow at times, and too many long intros and such. Regardless, the growth of this band from Poland is refreshing as former Eastern Bloc countries continue to expand the sound and atmosphere of Metal.