Review by Arek on September 17, 2014.

By way of charity concert that I coincidentally went to, my hearing organs were treated to music created by this quartet from Krakow. Dormant Ordeal is in existence since 2005, spreading their vision of death metal madness, spat out 3 demos from the bottom of their gut and the album being reviewed here. For yours truly they popped into existence in 2014, but as American scientists say "better late than never".

After the first hearing of publicized (via YouTube) version of It Rains ... I knew already that buying the original CD is a MUST. My suspicions were confirmed on the said concert. This quartet is like a machine ripping ethereal with wall of death metal. Well prepared rhythm section led by Radek (drums) and Kacper (bass) brings heaviness and pace, and the exemplary cooperation of two Macieks (guitar), (vocals) forms the shapes and creates the flavor of sounds being discharged.

Let’s go back to review of the album that for some unknown reason did not end up in my sticky paws in the past year. It Rains, It Pours is over 42 min of exemplary face melting death metal seasoned with 3 instrumental additions. “Cypress Mourning” is a piece of commendable death metal pounding with a crushing breakdown in the final section. “The Stepfather” is a steadily rolling death machine maintained in the medium tempos. “The Sinless” destroys us again with the slow tempo and guitar twisters. “Your Mother-Slave” starts with an interesting drum/guitar introduction, after which the time comes for another wall of death metal finished with an interesting solo. Both “Unimagined, Unwritten, Unseen” and “Days That Did Not Make It” are veritable guitar whirlwinds with lots of tempo changes. First one ends with a short solo passing into providing a little respite intro, and the other one with interesting alternating riffs - BRAVO Maciek!!! “The Animal” is once again an exemplary bone crusher with short decelerating moments and very interesting ‘howling’ guitars. “Man From The Water” deceives us with a Immolation-styled riff in the beginning just to tear all apart with brutal rage at the end. The icing on the cake is “Here Be Lions” to which the music video was filmed. It is typical Dormant style mangling with a great nostalgic theme in the introduction and conclusion. Ending outro is a sound landscape for the remains left after this death metal destruction.

In conclusion, I have to add that this material was recorded in adapted-as-a-studio rehearsal room, and mastered at Progresja Studio. We cannot forget about contribution of the singer also, which is an incredibly charismatic bastard with a strong throat that seems to be made for death metal. After such debut, the successor can only be better.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Adam M on March 18, 2017.

Though there is some hardcore shouting, much of this album by Darkest Hour could be regarded as highly influenced by melodic death metal. There is certainly the At the Gates touch on these tracks as they cruise by in harmonic fashion, especially towards the latter portions of the disc. The distinction between the two genres is hard to make as can be seen from this album itself.

There are furious portions, but they also contain melody. This makes them hard to pigeonhole, though there is certainly an influence from a couple of genres here. The fury on the album is wondrous to behold as the band puts the pedal to the metal. There is a need to make the tracks as abrasive as possible and this makes them scathingly listenable. The added injection of a slight bit of melody adds to the depth of the tracks. This album is interesting in that it seems to become more progressive as it goes along. The songs become less hardcore and more about making interesting songwriting. The wait for the music to buildup and fully take form is certainly worth it and leaves one wanting more as they go along with the disc.   Instrumentally, the performances are all solid with a nice guitar crunch sound heading the front. Similarly, the drums provide an undercurrent for the songs to groove to. Vocally, there is a spiteful tone present. It fits nicely atop the tracks and pushes them forward, especially early on in the disc where the tracks are more aggressive sounding.   The focus of the album largely shifts around the time of the track Widowed and going forward. The immediate next track Enter Oblivion shows a great shift in focus. There is a more mid-paced approach to this song than the furious early tracks displayed. The remainder of the disc continues this interesting approach to the end.

Thus we can see how an album can benefit from a change of focus. The early portions storm through and lead up to the compelling ending. Godless Prophets & The Migrant Flora is certainly a worthy album.

Rating: 7.6 out of 10