Perfectly Calm

Looking for some 2008's new metal releases from eastern-europe and checking in countries like Rumania, Bulgaria and Czech republic, nations that traditionally are owners of great black metal groups and in overall weird but good pagan and folk metal bands I found "Darkflight" and I thought that would be a good deal give it a check, after all I wasn't expecting anything special and the band's name it was very suggestive for me. DarkFlight is a project from Bulgaria leaded by the well known musician Ivo Iliev, metal-archives labels the band as Black/Doom Metal but the band embraces many different genres in its music: Epic, Symphonic, Ambiental and Depressive keeping the same vein of its previous release "Under the Shadow of Fear"and preserving the catchiness, depressión and despair. The album for sure will be one of the betters album of the year.


Perfectly calm starts off (first part) with a medieval-symphonic and melancholic touch that runs for trying to create an atmospheric passage which is easily accomplished, "Indifferent" shows the display of powerful soundscapes and slow vibe that will rise even more in the following tracks, a great opener that sets the vibe for the emotions, keep an eye the violins presence, voices and ambient, this is a song that may seem out there at first, but will grow on you over time. "Dissolving into Nothingness" (Second track), deserves a special mention, depression, emotion and despair running throught the violins, dense fog rising on the vocal work and despaired atmosphere, simply 7 perfect minutes of atmospheric black metal with an epic touch, indeed the highlight in the whole album and simply stunning¡¡¡

"Distant Pain" keeps the same vein of the first two, even accoustic guitars are added to the background, the atmosphere provides a dense feeling and the symphonic touch appears again in the last part, the title track "Perfectly Calm" adds keyboards that sum up even more emotions to the whole album and here is when the Forgotten Tomb memories arrive, this track projects anguish and pain in to the minds of the listener and the distant and eerie keyboard does its work.

After 4 eerie and atmospheric tracks "perfectly calm", turns in a more accoustic and even more ambiental album, "Yet here I stand" starts off with a very similar Alcest approach, being so varied, melodic, and versatile but soon the track take the way of the previous tracks, the desperate harsh vocals never ceases, and at this point the instrumental part has wider importance..., in the "Regard D'Outre Monde" the music is reminiscent once more to alcest and finally "L'Ether Astral" offers an atmospheric intro full of melodies, symphonic backgrounds and eerie sounds that complete the 8 anguish tracks and almost forces you to give it one more spin to the whole album.

Depressive approach and symphonic/medieval touch. Powerful sound, distant atmospheric keyboards, melodic guitars and harsh vocals, dirty production but in overall a great album. if you like bands like "Fear of eternity", "Forest of Shadows" , "Forgotten Tomb" and "Alcest" then I recommend it strongly.