Its a rare thing for me in this day and age where finding a new heavy metal band really sucked me in and motivated myself to dive deeper in the underground metal spectrum. That being said, Dark Meditation is a upcoming heavy metal band residing from my area in the Pacific Northwest where not only this is the debut full-length recording by the band, this is also some serious business in creating music that is fun, catchy, melodic at times and a great overall listening experience. From the vocals, guitars, bass, drums and mixing to the heavily inspired 80s to 90s era of heavy musicality, these Washingtonians not only wanted to make music to give a modern-day sound on the record but also giving some unique compositional work as the instrumentals provide a much more dense, audible and sharp tone giving every track the proper balance as it should sound.
But in terms of the craftsmanship and consistency is concerned, these members have done a fantastic job making every song feel natural, distinctive and progressive as it seems they’ve expanded their musical interests which sounds like this record straight up came out of the mid to late 80s but in a modern production. Vocally, I get a wide variety of different displays from the power metal-esque soundscapes of The Howling Wild, Nocturnal Forever and Master’s Coil or the groove laden, almost doomy atmospheric passages of Drink Of The Blade and Desolation Days as it almost reminded me a hybrid of Black Sabbath, Khemmis, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Judas Priest and even Skid Row at times where the harmonics and pitch registered vocal deliveries ranging the commendable, heroic approach gives it a big power metal attitude as I feel the singing gives a great emotional factor.
The guitars, drums and bass are also well mixed in the department where they’ve shined upon listening to the album where it doesn’t feel heavily distorted or artificial sounding and it creates a barrier of wonderful compliments giving every instrumental lead a chance to compensate. I also will include that while this album isn’t the most groundbreaking or innovative album of all time, Polluted Temples is a marvelous treat front to back for those wanting to travel years ago when metal just found its rightful place. A decent heavy metal 2022 album.
Overall Score: 8.5/10
Review by Jake Butler
