Hidden Gems & Guilty Pleasures: Darkness Everywhere (USA)
Photos by Joe Calixto
Darkness Everywhere (Melodic Death Metal // USA)
Darkness Everywhere from Oakland, California unites vocalist/guitarist Ben Murray (Light This City, A Wilhelm Scream), guitarist Cameron Stucky (Crepuscle), drummer Garrett Garvey, and renowned producer/engineer Zack Ohren on bass.
The glory years of early In Flames, At The Gates, and Dark Tranquillity are what largely inform the sound and aesthetic of Darkness Everywhere. The core of the band is built on the feel of those legendary records, while offering a refreshing take on the no frills melodic death metal sound akin to the output of modern outfits Horrendous, Majesties, and Upon Stone.
The band wastes no time in getting to the point of melodic death metal riffing and driving, thrashing tempos. Preceded by their 2022 debut EP, »The Seventh Circle«, and 2023 standalone single »The Glow Of Haunted Existence«, »To Conquer Eternal Damnation« is the band’s first full-length venture.
Unstoppable and unflinching from the first note, »To Conquer Eternal Damnation« delivers ten volatile, shredding tracks, burning with the patented early-1990s Gothenburg sound, adrenalized with merciless high-tempo executions forged by the second wave bands of the style, citing The Haunted, Hypocrisy, Dimension Zero, and Carcass. With zero ballads, filler tracks, or venturing off course, through every minute of the album, Darkness Everywhere stays intensely focused on decimating their target: the listener.
»To Conquer Eternal Damnation« was produced, mixed, mastered by the band’s own Zack Ohren at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland and completed with artwork by Adam Burke and photography by Joe Calixto. The first public foretaste of the album is the crushing opening song, »Retaliation«, which is delivered through an intense video directed and edited by Alessandro Pulisci (Ugly Owl Films).
Founding vocalist/guitarist Ben Murray states, “We’re incredibly proud of this album, and really feel that it encompasses everything we set out to do with this band. The ten tracks that make up the record are a mixture of all our favorite elements of classic melodic death metal. »To Conquer Eternal Damnation« is a continuation of where we were headed with our debut EP, but intensified in every way.”
»To Conquer Eternal Damnation« was released on May 10th, 2024 via Creator-Destructor Records. Order LPs/CDs/Tapes/Merch at creatordestructor.com.
Darkness Everywhere formed as a trio in late 2020 with the goal of writing songs heavily influenced by the classic mid-1990s Swedish melodic death metal sound. However, this isn’t the individual members’ first time around the block when it comes to melodic death metal. Founding vocalist/guitarist/drummer Ben Murray is a founding member of Bay Area band Light This City, as well as being the owner Creator-Destructor Records, and now also a member of A Wilhelm Scream. Guitarist Cameron Stucky is a member of symphonic melodic metal act Crepuscle. Bassist Zack Ohren recorded and produced all of Light This City’s albums throughout the past twenty years and continues to be one of the leading metal producers in the industry, having worked with Machine Head, All Shall Perish, Animosity, Decapitation, Suffocation, and many more. Drummer Garrett Garvey fleshes out the now four-piece lineup of Darkness Everywhere.
Courtesy of Earsplit PR
Discography:
• »The Seventh Circle« EP (Creator-Destructor Records, 2022)
• »The Glow Of Haunted Existence« Single (Creator-Destructor Records, 2023)
• »To Conquer Eternal Damnation« (Creator-Destructor Records, 2024)
Band members:
Ben Murray – Guitars, Vocals
Cameron Stucky – Guitars
Zack Ohren – Bass
Garrett Garvey – Drums
For fans of early In Flames, At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity, Dismember, Grand Cadaver, Bloodbath
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well