On Weak Aside’s last album, The Next Offensive, I had to go after the band’s lackluster moniker as the everything was else was so damn solid. This time, the German warmongers are just as good as before, so I’ll go after that eyesore of an album cover….

I digress, Forward Into Darkness continues the band’s confident and competent Bolt Thrower, Jungle Rot, Hail of Bullets, God Dethroned throes – musically, vocally, and thematically  (with a little more emphasis on U-boat warfare here it seems), with 9 songs and one intro (“Submerge”) of quality chugging, lumbering, trundling death metal.

The focus is mostly mid-paced, double bass driven death metal with a few faster moments thrown into the fray (“Royal Blood Dethroned”, “Violence”, “Face Down”) but the meat and potatoes of the album is the likes of opener “Until you Died”, “Contact”, ” In the Deep there is no God”, “Poison Gas ” and the somber closer “The End” which all deliver satisfying rumbles and grooves in spades.

There’s not much more to expand on. Vocalist Tom Zorn has both and imposing growl and a dead-on Martin Van Drunen scream, the production from Thilo Krieger and master/mix from  Jörg Uken is beefy and hefty, there are some melancholic  Bolt Thrower-ish solos (“We’re all Condemned”, “The End”)  and the end result is another fine album from these grizzled Germans and the always reliable FDA Records.

[Visit the band's website]

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