DARK HELM are a six piece from Pune, Maharashtra, which comprises of Ravi Saleikar(Vocals), Shubhrayu Dey(Bass), Clinton Moniz(Guitars), Mohanashish Deshmukh(Guitars), Aniketh Shankar(Keyboards) and Ninad Ingulkar (Drums). The band’s sound can be best described as Progressive Deathcore which is strongly influenced by Egyptian Classical Music (no they are not copying NILE). PERSEPOLIS is a conceptual album, chronicling the life of Persian king Cyrus the great, which the band portrays majestically with dreamy, atmospheric and sometimes melodic soundscapes created by Aniketh accompanied by the use of traditional Indian musical instruments like the "Santoor" and the "Sitar" and even the "Tabla" which comes in the later half of JAFFAR, played according to the scales of Egyptian Classical Music mixed with massive guitar breakdowns that just grab you by the neck and leave you no choice but to headbang! The intensity of which is heightened by some really heavy groove-djent inspired riffage which is done over some really fast double bass drumming by Ninad. All of these factors make DARK HELM's sound fresh and unique which is added by the lush clean production which keeps everything in balance while also making sure that the tones have that extra edge, that punch which should be there in a good Deathcore album. The only problem that I have with this album though is with the clean vocals, although Ravi delivers some really really menacing growls and in some songs pig squeals, his softer vocals however sound really pale in comparison and don’t really fit well with the genre, but that didn’t really bother me much as those vocals are pretty scarce throughout the album, I hope things stay that way in future efforts.
So with all that being said, all I can say is that DARK HELM has released a debut that is more than just promising, it’s fantastic. DARK HELM has been successfully able to create a fusion of the old and the new without any pretension and without watering down their sound as is the case with most bands that do so. They are one of the few bands in the scene today that can safely say that they have a sound completely their own. No wonder they got signed to an international record label.
Recommended if you like: DESPISED ICON, THE RED CHORD, THE ACACIA STRAIN, ORPHANED LAND, BHAYANAK MAUT, OCEANO, BORN OF OSIRIS, VEIL OF MAYA, ARTILLERIE( I know they play completely different genres but for some reason this kind of reminded me of their ERADEFIELD album)
Bottom Line
A solid debut. Deathcore answer to NILE!
