Album Review: Dark Zodiak - Ophiuchus
Reviewed by Paul Hutchings
Since forming in 2011, German thrash/death outfit Dark Zodaik have released two full length albums, the most recent 2017’s ‘Landscapes of Our Soul’. The band’s blend of ferocious thrash combined with guttural, crushing death metal elements blend well. It’s the thunderous growls of vocalist Simone Schwarz that really grab the attention in the opening couple of songs. ‘Do More, Say Less’ is a solid opener, competent if unremarkable whilst ‘Heaven, Earth and Beneath’ is a pulverising maelstrom that feels as if it’s about to run out of control before the tempo slows and pulls it back on course.
Schwarz’s vocals work reasonably well, at times her demonic roars are frighteningly deep, such that you wonder what she must have for breakfast to develop such dark utterings. It’s a little one dimensional at times, dominating to the expense of the guitar work which appears a little blunted. The band’s thrashing approach works better for me than the death style, which isn’t a patch on many bands in the genre. There are also some horrendous pig squeals on ‘Invisible Apocalypse’ and a couple of other tracks, which arrive out of nowhere and add nothing. At times, and I hate to make the comparison, Dark Zodiac present as a third-rate Arch Enemy.
I’m still confused about the title track, which stands as the centre piece of the album. It’s a cluttered, bewildering array of styles with more pig squeals, slow, doom elements that stand awkwardly alongside the more direct delivery. I can’t decide if it’s an intriguing piece that allows for the creativity of the band to flow or an uncomfortable juxtaposition of styles that doesn’t work.
Disappointingly the album doesn’t improve dramatically from this point onwards. The riffs are plentiful, the thrash elements that surface suggest hidden depths but whilst the vocals work with the songs, they are repetitive, and often fail to ignite interest. By the time I got to From Thrash to Death I was losing attention. Thrash and death metal has to grab you by the throat and pin you against the wall. ‘Ophiuchus’ did neither. ‘2020 AD’ is weak and whilst I appreciated the sentiment and themes, it’s a lumbering, clumsy song which struggled despite being alongside songs that were also rather weak.
2020 provided us with a plethora of superb quality records. The bar has been set astonishingly high for 2021. Dark Zodiak have not quite got the bounce to get over that bar.
