Darkaeon are a heavy progressive metal act from Canada. They don’t feature really long song structures (yet?), but their compositional and technical skills are without question present on their debut album Nihilism.

I’ve met this band live, last week, and was utterly impressed by their musicianship and the tightness of every musician in a live setting. The bassist pulls off flawless tapping sections, the guitarists too are spot on, and no note is badly picked. The drummer is tight and stays on the beat, while the singer sounds remarkably similar to his recorded version (even in a ketchup costume (yes, it was a Halloween show)).

When I heard them, I first thought of Power Of Omens’ creative and insane progressive metal, mostly because of the bass player, but the overall isn’t that different from the comparison I made. Well, the drummer sure isn’t overplaying as much as in Power Of Omens – that’s a ridiculous level of overplay, but I still enjoy it – and the singer is quite different, using more harsh vocal techniques than clean singing, leaving the latter to be heard only a few times on the whole album. All his vocal techniques are brilliantly displayed on Nihilism.

Seriously, the album is pretty badass, and really good. I seriously recommend you take a listen and buy it!