MY DARKEST SIDE

As I was sifting through the day's pile of promotional CDs and realizing again that it would be nearly impossible to give much "ink" to even a fraction of the numerous unsigned band releases that arrived, I happened to notice the phrase "Roman Fuckin Metal" on the back cover of one of the discs. At that point, it became something of a necessity to dig further with the possibility of a review now a near certainty. Sorry if you thought that some sort of statistically-based, predictive modeling was used in the selection of independently released CDs to review; as ICE-T shouted many years ago, "Shit ain't like that!" As it turns out, the "Death Begins" EP by Italy's MY DARKEST SIDE is a surprisingly stout, if only marginally distinct, example of Swedish-melodic death metal as interpreted by oodles of American metalcore bands.

Somewhat more specifically, the style emulated on "Death Begins" falls somewhere between THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER and DARKEST HOUR in that there is less 'core and more death involved. There are occasional flashes of acts like NIGHTRAGE as well. From the standpoint of performance, the boys lock it down pretty tight, ripping and shredding across typically staccato/unhinged rhythms. Vocalist Valerio Ziroli sticks to a predictable, though nicely done, growl 'n scream style, guiding better than average melodies in the process. Dario Romagnoli's guitar solos are workmanlike and welcome within the larger compositional context. Finally, the recording, mixing, and mastering of Stefano Morabito at Rome's 16th Cellar Studio is professionally done and devoid of the kind production problems that often plague independent releases.

The truth of the matter is the style played on "Death Begins" is mostly interchangeable with that played by many other bands and, as such, will win MY DARKEST SIDE no awards for originality. However, inventiveness is not a prerequisite to enjoyment of a preferred style nor does it mean that the music of "Death Begins" is not well played and fairly well written. It is, and as the group continues to ply its trade, a surer, more identifiable approach is likely to emerge. More importantly, I hear a good of potential here and have a feeling that MY DARKEST SIDE may be going places soon. I wonder if the quintet realizes the humor inherent in the name of its MySpace page. www.myspace.com/mydarkestsideband.