Deepening Dread
With The Blinding Dark, the Swedish band, Covenant, brings their album total up to nine. Following a progressively darker path with each album, The Blinding Dark hits what’s so far their lowest point of existential dread.
“Dies Irae” starts the album off dramatically with a synth orchestral chorus intermixed with what comes off as gentle thunder in the background before developing into simple rifts as dark lyrics contemplating a division between God and man overtake everything else, essentially setting the tone for the entire album. “Sound Mirrors,” the advanced industrial-sounding single given over the summer, follows. After the first interlude, “I Close My Eyes” starts and has the most fully realized concept in terms of its sound and is one of the strongest songs on The Blinding Dark. Moving further along the album, “Morning Star” hits another high point as its able to fully envelope itself in the darkness Covenant seeks out this whole time. “If I Give My Soul” keeps the momentum going with a strong and confident sound. The last few songs, though, lose the strength found in these two songs and The Blinding Dark ends flat with “Summon Your Spirit,” a closing song that ends sounding as if it is still waiting to truly pick up.
Overall, concept wise, Covenant excels at their execution of dark and dread-inducing sounds, especially on this album. There is depth to the lyrics and they succeed in getting progressively darker, but they are rarely executed to their fullest potential. Unfortunately, the lack of drive cannot carry that darkness through. Most of the songs found on this album sound like they are built from two incomplete parts that are not compatible but are still fused together. Some songs manage to escape this, like “Sound Mirrors” and “If I Give My Soul,” but it is not enough for the album to rely on. The Blinding Dark leaves a listener wanting more, but not necessarily in a way that’s to it benefit.
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