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Dark Lunacy > The Diarist > Reviews
Dark Lunacy - The Diarist

AHH MOTHERLAND - 85%

Tanuki, July 27th, 2020

By the time The Diarist was released, Dark Lunacy already got their feet wet with freezing gray Siberian slush, releasing two great albums only occasionally marred by In Flames coattail riding, gaudier than Czar Alexander II's commode. Their third album was a tremendous refinement of this familiar formula, burning away much of the fat, and making all the Soviet symphonia seem significantly less contrived. Even downright menacing at times.

For example, the penultimate track 'Motherland' features quotations from an actual Russian march called 'Farewell of Slavianka', and elsewhere the guitars themselves invoke a grim, martial dignity, particularly in my personal favorite track 'Pulkovo Meridian'. I'm tempted to compare the end-result to mid-00's Dark Tranquility, or Death Metal-era Dismember, with just a pinch of Illdisposed evident throughout the groove-laden tracks like 'Snowdrifts' and 'Now is Forever'. Which I at first found odd, considering how these tracks also proffer a fair bit of emotional sentiment as well...

...But then I remembered where melodeath was at the time. In case you didn't know, the genre had an identity crisis after the landmark Slaughter of the Soul, which effectively synapsed the genre into two warring factions. There were the "I can't believe it's not metalcore" imitators, and the overwhelmingly macho rebuttal that utilized thick grooves and bellowing vocals to distance themselves from said album as much as possible. Even as a fan of the genre, I'll admit both sides bore some righteously awkward fruit. But by the mid-00's, bands like Dark Lunacy were consolidating both perspectives and creating very heavy, very crushing compositions that were tempered, and even enhanced, by emotion and femininity.

Hence, 'On Memory's White Sleigh' and the aforementioned 'Snowdrifts' utilize somber piano articulations, symphonic setpieces, and icy smooth female vocals. The fluctuations are remarkably authentic in nature, giving off some real "Beauty and the Beast" vibes, minus the Stockholm's Syndrome. The unique mixture of animalistic strength and bleak despair is appropriate for a concept album about the three-year siege on Leningrad, which is yet another sentence I could never say outside of a metal review. This results in The Diarist being Dark Lunacy's most corporeal offering, and one that almost rivals the majesty of Intestine Baalism in terms of heartrending authenticity.

But it's not all sunshine and rainbows. This is an album about Russia, after all, and I'm pretty sure rainbows are illegal there. The Diarist is very dense bordering on sickly. Just under an hour's worth of symphonic interludes and dour overtures, in addition to a numbing barrage of roaring percussion and beefy riffs? The result is an album exceptionally difficult to wolf down all at once, and although I still believe it's Dark Lunacy's finest hour, that almost gives you more of a reason to take your time with it and maybe skip around when you feel your attention span slipping. It's possible that's a "me" thing, though. After all, I do have ADD, which means I'm easily distracted by um, man, it's been forever since I played Cuphead. I'll see you guys later.

Easily one of the best of 06 - 100%

SirMichaelJ, July 29th, 2006

How often do you get a band with a uniqueness all their own nowadays? Dark Luncay has a distinct sound, and yet on every album they sound completely different. How do they do it? Easy. They are 4 very talented and artistic young men. Not only is the music beautiful ( Listen to Snowfall) but the subject it depicts, that being the devestation to Russia in WWII, is a very rare treat in todays music scene full of grindcrap bands singing about porn ( which has its place and time ha)

Its really is unfortunate that the bassist and drummer had to leave, because both of them had a very huge part in the band. But Im hoping as mcuh as you all are that whoever replaces them shares the same artistic vision and ability to write beautiful music.

How to decribe the music on this cd. Well the term used to coin their sound, Dramatic Death Metal, doesent do them justice. Think a majestic movie score, with compelling vocals all around sung with conviction. The guitar work is what really sets them apart. It can be a cuhg, to picking in an instant. Bass has both a lot of high and low end in the cd, and the drums... well listen to it and you tell me how it sounds because the only way to describe this band is a mixture of beauty, grace, depression, empowerment, and perfection

Listen to them, be amazed that the lyrics hold a true meaning unlike 99% of crap out there today, and most of all keep rocking out.

Choice selections- Aurora, The Diarist, Snowfall, On Memmorie's White Sleigh, Heart of Leningrad, Motherland

Very worthy successor - 95%

RoivasUGO, April 25th, 2006

After the brilliant Forget. Me. Not, it was going to be hard for Dark Lunacy to come up with something that could measure up to it. It took them three years to come up with the new album. It turned out to be a good thing that it took so long: quality may take time.

I'd first like to warn the Dark Lunacy fanatics: there's no more violins. They have been replaced by electronics.

I'll let that sink in for a moment.

Yep, it's true, their most stand-out feature and the single instrument that really made a big difference from other bands, is gone. Forget Me Not even more than Devoid used the violins as the main instrument for the melody. So how can they still have maintained such quality while exchanging the classic violin for the ever horrible keyboards?

Good composition, that's what.

The sound for DL has, once again, shifted quite a bit for the new album. It's turned more aggressive, yet at the same time, more depressed. The main theme throughout the album is the siege of Stalingrad and the cold loneliness afterwards. The female vocals really help in illustrating this bleak picture, and are used a lot more on this album than on the previous album.

The absence of the violins is compensated by several aspects. First, there is the keyboard. While it doesn't sound as good as the classical violins, it blends in very well, and the melodic compositions are still top-notch. Though it sometimes sounds like taken from a Final Fantasy soundtrack, it's not a big problem at all.

The second solution are the female vocals. Several songs make excellent use of the female vocals, the most notable songs being Snowdrifts and On Memorie's White Sleigh. As said, they create a bleak picture of abandoned streets packed with snow.

Third is the mixture of alien music and choirs into the songs. The album starts out with one of these choirs on Aurora, and on Motherland a military victorymarch is blended into the song. This has been used before on Devoid, was absent on FMN, and makes a grand return here. It works very well with the music, the theme and the atmosphere. The theme is supported even more by the skits, The Diarist and Prospekt. Especially The Diarist is an excellent lead into Snowdrifts.

Lastly, the lead guitars. More solos, more brutal riffing, it's all in the package. The guitar lines are excellent and really manage to keep Dark Lunacy a unique kind of band. They still fully deserve the right to call themselves Dramatic Death Metal.

It's different. It's more aggressive and the violins are dropped. Yet Dark Lunacy have still managed to remain an amazingly technical, original and gifted band. They may take another 3 years to get another album done if it contains this quality again, because as I said before: quality may take time. And this is high quality.