Band: Darksound Album: No Return Road Label: Lengua Armada Rating: 8/10 Website: http://www.darksoundband.com BUY NOW!

Every now and again, I come across bands and wonder just exactly how they managed to become popular, especially with some of the new, modern bands emerging. Then, there are bands such as Darksound who, despite releasing such a great album as this, will find it tough without the right backing to make them selves heard. Not my usual cup of tea, but Darksound's Alt Rock has a very grungy and catchy edge to it, and at times reminds of early Tool, Deftones and moments of System of a Down. Fantastic riffs, melodies, choruses and vocalist Pedro Wichard suits the music perfectly and is very unique sounding, yet his style has a very "familiar" sound to it that you can't quite place your finger on. All 12 of the tracks on here are very well written and constructed, an album you can easily sit and listen to in its entirety. There's nothing that is overly original, but it remains an enjoyable listen from start to finish from the energetic opener "Tsunami", through to the groovy and by far the best track on the album "Polenesian Art" and then onto more experimental tracks such as "Air Shuttle" and "Cosmetica". The majority of these tracks are good enough to appear on radio's everywhere and they would not be out of place at all. Definitely an album to be proud of, and it will be interesting to see where the Spaniards can go from here. It's one that fans of rock in general will appreciate. Chris Rogers Back to Reviews