I actually laughed when I read the title of the opening track to
Deliver Us. 'Doomsayer (the beginning of the end)', is, to be honest, a great title for the song, as it's overblown and riddled with hilarious metal clichés that it becomes brilliant. It's repeated throughout the album: metal, but done with a dose of (sometimes near operatic) silliness.
And that brings me onto another thing - Darkest Hour have shifted a little bit with this release. Their previous four albums (yep, count 'em, not including the EP re-releases) were, to me, the embodiment of a nice balance which is so often lacking in metallic hardcore releases. This album seems to take on a little more metallic 'pomp' and has lost a bit of the hardcore edge of previous releases. The vocals seem to be oblivious to this shift, but tracks like 'Demon(s)' and 'An Ethereal Drain' are prime examples of how a much bigger sound has been employed to complement some frankly ridiculous fretwanking.
I can't listen to 'A Paradox with Flies' without thinking that the more melodic sections sound very similar to a few Shadows Fall songs. It just seems to me to be a little too far removed to what made this band so great, and one of the better outfits on Victory's roster. That's not to say I didn't enjoy listening to this record - I sort of did - but there was no instant 'wow' factor that I got when hearing a huge proportion of their back catalogue ('An Epitaph', 'For the soul of the saviour' and 'These Fevered times' spring immediately to mind).
If this had been someone else, I'd have been fairly impressed. But Darkest Hour have set themselves a high bar and, despite the excellence in execution displayed here, seem to have fallen a little short of their target.
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