Review by chrisc7249 on June 4, 2022.

Very few band names could be nearly as edgy as Shadow In The Darkness. It sounds like a song title I would have written back in 7th grade when I still thought Slipknot was a good band. Did that affect my willingness to listen to the band? Of course it did, because for some unknown reason, I am a judgemental fuck and have predispositioned thoughts about all things before I actually interact with them, but I assume that's just human nature. Anyway, the name doesn't matter, this isn't shitty metalcore music, this is some of the most frantic, razor sharp technical death metal I've heard in a while and the fact that this is just a debut gets me going.

On Erstwhile Befell, the debut album by Greek technical death metal band Shadow In The Darkness, we are greeted with a heavy dose of riff oriented tech death delivered at breakneck speeds, sprinkled with equally fast leads that create an experience not too far from those created by early The Faceless and The Zenith Passage. Remember when I said in my The Zenith Passage review that they were the next evolution of The Faceless? Probably not because I doubt anyone reads these, but that aside, Shadow In The Darkness is like the next evolution of The Zenith Passage. It has that somewhat mechanical feel, with start-stop riffing and explosive sweeps that'll make people consider giving up guitar altogether. Yes, this is mostly a guitar oriented album above all else, but they do a good job of carrying the music. The riffs are fucking great. Memorable and heavy, just how they need to be. The crazy lead work is flashy enough to be awe inspiring, but not too flashy that it just sounds like a musical jerk off session. The bass plays some good stuff but never really takes the stage alone at any points.

The drumming is, of course, inhumanly fast and ridiculously technical. Awesome! I don't want jazz drumming over this kind of tech death, they needed a drummer that can just blast until his heart fails, and this drummer does just that. The vocals are actually really good. Usually I brush over tech death vocals, but this guy has good range with some absolutely gnarly highs. Sounds like he's enduring the pain of a thousand lashes - at once.

The production is good. Moving on.

The songs themselves are really good, though at a few times it sounds like songs go on a little too long just for the hell of it. They'll have a moment that sounds like the song is going to end, and then you realize there's a minute of riffs still left, and it does that on a few songs. Is it a huge problem? Far from it. It does feel like the songs drag on just a teeny bit at times, but at the end of the day it's not severe and hardly detracts from the album.

Other than all that, there's not much more to say. Turns out there's only so many ways I can describe technical death metal albums before all my reviews start to read the exact same, but oh well. Point is, this is nowhere near as repetitive as my reviews. This is a really fucking awesome album and I'm glad I bypassed the eyeroll worthy name and gave this a try. It reminds me of a number of great tech death bands we've seen emerge in the past 5 years, all mushed together in a 32 minute long package (shorter when you take out the two useless interludes.) I think most fans of this genre will like this release and should give it a try. Definitely an unsung hero that deserves more praise than they've been getting. Super fast, technical and of course, heavy as fuck. We need more bands like this.

FFO: The Zenith Passage, The Faceless, The Odious Construct

Favorite song: 'Interdisciplinary Sectarianism'

Rating: 8 out of 10