Metal Underground.com

Dark Vision has a great love for the bands that have come before. And those bands range from the early black and death metallers to the very fast early thrashers. Dark Vision has no shame in letting the listener know these influences, but don’t try to emulate them to the point of regurgitation and absurd tributes.

The opening track to Dark Vision’s album “Ingrowth” is like a dramatic film score composition complete with eerie strings and timpani orchestral drum that pound out war marching rhythms, which set the mood for the second song. “King of Emptiness” has a galloping, mid-pace guitar that rides along and performs a perfect black metal strumming during the early tempo change. Giannis K.’s highly-inventive drum playing lays a solid beat and Bill’s vocals are deep and brutal; he holds a torch for the old school death and grind vocalists, but with the late style of overlapping lines. The tempo changes into a steady hammer pounding rhythm so that the song is drilled into your head. “Pain Redirected” showcases the band’s ability to also play a well-executed early thrash sound among blackened melodies; the vocals are high and demonic, sounding somewhere between Voivod and early Carpathian Forest.

“Garden of Nuclear Mushrooms” has the pinch harmonic squeal guitar that I dearly love and an assault of crisp guitar tones. It’s almost as if Machine Head and Morbid Angel joined forces for an album. Bill roars gutturally to end the eerie intro and Mark begins a classic metal riff. This song has the distinction of some more minimal parts in which the guitar blurts while the bass drums roll, but just the cymbal softly clangs. Bill growls a double layering of a shrill yell and a low roar. The production of the album is great, and everything from the additional drum hits to the eerie synth backgrounds on some of the songs are strategically placed to perfection. The title track of “Ingrowth” is the last song, beginning with haunting electrical fuzz that culminates in the savage riffs and impish growls. One lone guitar squeal fades out into a quiet, sorrowful dirge.

Dark Vision is exactly what the name describes: brutal metal covering many genres, and just doing it the band’s way, according to its own vision. No gimmicks or political or religious overtones, just all out amps to 11 for a brutally good listen.