Spanning close to three decades in their career, Swedish black metal masters Dark Funeral have always delivered and became one of the most notable bands of all time within the black metal spectrum. Throughout their years they’ve had multiple lineup changes and coming from someone who is a massive fan of the band, I was beyond ecstatic when I’ve heard Dark Funeral was about to release new music and lord behold, this is without a doubt, the best material these musicians have created in such a longtime. For only having six albums in their catalog, We Are The Apocalypse is perhaps the most unadulterated, diabolical and eviscerating records they’ve done to date. Everything from the compositional work, production, lyrical content and ideologies this band is heavily known for have really outdone themselves in which I can’t deny how fluent, diverse and ambitious this record truly came to be.
After the last record of 2016’s Where Shadows Forever Reign being a acclaimed hit in the modern era of Dark Funeral, We Are The Apocalypse is the seventh full-length recording that is released through Century Media Records and honestly, if you’re a fan of the band and know what their style and influence is all about, you’ll know right off the bat that this record is intense, it’s aggressive, it’s traditional Dark Funeral at its finest hour. From the heart-stopping instrumentals, crafted membership, destructive production and lyrical themes sounding more fiercer than ever before, these musicians took the music from the devil’s soul and these rebellious, yet onslaught of catastrophic metal commotion that is sure to grab new metalhead’s attention by holding their throats and beat them into a writhing submission hold.
From hard-hitting tracks such as When Our Vengeance Is Done, Leviathan, A Beast to Praise and Let the Devil In features different sections that each transition seamlessly, demonstrating a masterful level of songwriting and tightness as a artist. The album blends together hard-hitting metal driven by blast beats, melodic guitar arrangements and solid bass tones while fusing together a progressive edge that allows for the music to shift, giving each song a rich soundscape and variety from within the songs. When the members from Dark Funeral chooses a path to take a more straightforward and modern metal approach, the results are just as polished and spectacular with such a everlasting and these songs after each consecutive listen gets better and better through and through. We Are The Apocalypse is an excellent record which takes much of today’s modern metal- whether it be black metal or extreme it surely takes it to a whole new level with an uncompromising level of musicianship from the band as a whole.
Overall Score: 9.0/10
Review by Jake Butler
