Downswitch
Let Clarity Descend From Blackened Skies

May 2010
Released: 2010, Dutch Metal Records
Rating: 3.0/5
Reviewer: Theis Rytoft

Danish Downswitch plays a blend of death-, grindcore and metalcore metal in a big, black pot! This is their first full-length album and before additional comments I must stress that it really seems like the guys have tried to give it a big shot!



Downswitch demonstrates a wide array of aspects with their style evolving around high-speed tempo, heavy drums and riffs as well as growling, clean and shrieking vocals. It starts off with something completely different though which is an atmospheric intro giving associations to decay and thus the cover. This decay manifests itself in the second track “The Nation Who Lost It Self” as Downswitch shows their rather brutal sound resembling death metal just including all of the previously mentioned parts. I personally find the merge between shrieking, growling and clean vocals fascinating and it keeps the music more diverse as seen in “When I Stab You in the Heart Will I Hit Ice”. On the contrary this mix can get too insipid as the feature is used so much, and fortunately the band has placed a little slow progressing instrumental part without any heavy sounds except for some nice background guitars in track 8. It would have a better effect if it had been placed sooner in between the tracks.



I like Downswitch’s sound even though I rarely find grindcore or metalcore interesting at all but a lot of their tracks are too closely tied together: The sound also including the vocals are simply too cyclical and I will rarely sit down if ever to listen through the whole album again. Another element which is very evident in the musical composition is the drums: They are really crucial and almost the backbone of all the songs and they are good. But as in the other areas they also suffer from monotony, albeit the drummer does an inspiring and attractive job behind them!



LET CLARITY DESCEND FROM BLACKENED SKIES will definitely appeal to many metalheads listening to death metal, grindcore or metalcore while many others will not find the sound throughout the whole album unique enough. It has many good parts and pieces but suffers from being too recurring.



Recommended tracks: 02. The Nation Who Lost It Self, 03. When I Stab You In The Heart Will I Hit Ice & Reflection…All has changed.