To celebrate its tenth anniversary, French metal outfit Darkshine decided to release a best-of CD, surprisingly called Ten Years. The effort contains two new tracks, four tracks from their Stigma Diaboli EP and two songs from their Lupus Infernorum demo CD. I don�t know about you but those albums didn�t ring a bell here. But, as the promo sheet unveils, we can prepare for some extreme metal. Well, bring it on!

 

First of all I really miss the extreme element in this music. And after doing some research I found out I wasn�t the only one to notice that. Or, better said: not notice it. You�d expect complete madness on this disc with awful guttural screams and grunts but instead you get to hear your average death metal vocals, every now and then interrupted by more of a black metal approach. All far from special, unfortunately.

 

Music wise there�s hardly any surprise to be found on the disc either. The drums don�t come out very well in the overall mix and as the album continues I find myself wondering whether to consider this album a nice anniversary treat or a rather uninspired and unoriginal disc that most of us wouldn�t even bother listen to. Guess it�s something for the diehard Darkshine fans then�

 

In short: if you�re interested in finding a decade of not-too-extreme metal summarized in half an hour of music; give it a shot! Otherwise I suggest you to keep looking for something better. But when you do feel the urge to check out a song, check out: �Ancestral Belief� or �Vseslav�.