Darker Half are a heavy metal band from the land down under, Sydney to be exact, but their influences are most definitely from the northern hemisphere. The band owe a lot to early Maiden more than anything else with a raw metal sound, twin guitar delivery and screaming vocals. Just to re-enforce this notion the band have supported Paul Dianno twice on antipodean tours.

This is the band’s second full length release, the first found the band critical acclaim and led to several notable support slots. The guys play heavy metal with the odd bit of thrash thrown in for good measure and it is rather good. The twin guitar work of Vo Simpson and Brad Dickson is excellent, harking back to the early sparring of Dave Murray and Adrian Smith ( or Den Stratton if you want to go that far back ). The only weak point in the delivery at times are the vocals of Vo who does struggle a bit at lower registers but he hits the high notes with aplomb.

This is a good album with a lot going for it, if you hanker for the good old NWOBHM days then Darker Half could be just the thing. They will be touring all over Australia soon in support of the album if you fancy popping over.

David Wilson