{"id":32681,"date":"2013-10-26T13:55:17","date_gmt":"2013-10-26T18:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=32681"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:38:20","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:38:20","slug":"dark-design-prey-for-the-future-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/dark-design-prey-for-the-future-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Design | Prey for the Future<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist\/News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"DarkIf the Heaven & Hell Records roster can be said to have a type, it\u2019s probably a hybrid of thrash and power metal sounds with a strong \u201880s influence. Bands like Ancient Creation, Seventh Calling and Core Device all fit that mold, as does North Carolina band Dark Design, who has recently delivered their full length debut, titled Prey for the Future<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Where Dark Design deviates from the formula a bit is that there\u2019s a technicality on display that comes pretty close to progressive metal territory. The overall sound on Prey for the Future still relies heavily on high speed riffs and heavy, headbanging rhythms, but between the intricate guitar work, melodic aspects, science fiction themes and the unique vocals (Andrew Bertrand has a Joey Belladonna meets Harry Conklin thing going on), there\u2019s a lot more going on than is evident at first.<\/p>\n

Once they get the instrumental intro out of the way, the song \u201cDark Design\u201d kicks in and does a great job capturing the band\u2019s overall sound. The album stumbles a bit with the oddly titled (and very personal and vindictive) \u201cWelcome to You\u2019re (Doom!),\u201d but gets back on track with the Wheel of Time-inspired \u201cDragonmount\u201d and \u201cSpice World,\u201d which seems like a nod to Dune but cleverly pivots to the situation in the Middle East. The album closes on a controversial note, with a full-on metal version of the Kansas classic \u201cDust in the Wind.\u201d People are going to either totally love or totally hate that one.<\/p>\n

Dark Design isn\u2019t necessarily reinventing the genre here, but they do play this kind of metal very well. If you\u2019re into classic bands like Vicious Rumors, Helstar, Liege Lord and Jag Panzer, Dark Design is a band that\u2019s well worth checking out. And of course if you\u2019ve kept up with the Heaven & Hell label\u2019s releases to date, chances are you\u2019ll be just as happy with Prey for the Future. It\u2019s a very solid nod to the old school heavy metal sound.<\/p>\n

Genre: Power Metal, Thrash Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nAndrew Bertrand (v)
\nRay Lewis (g)
\nMike Joyner (g)
\nMatt Mercer (b)
\nRobbie Mercer (d)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tIn Medias Res
\n2.\tDark Design
\n3.\tNo Death
\n4.\tAbiding Contempt
\n5.\tWelcome to You\u2019re \u201cDoom\u201d!
\n6.\tDragonmount
\n7.\tMeditations
\n8.\tSpice World
\n9.\tDust in the Wind<\/p>\n

Label: Heaven & Hell Records<\/p>\n

Website: www.facebook.com\/darkdesignband<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — If the Heaven & Hell Records roster can be said to have a type, it\u2019s probably a hybrid of thrash and power metal sounds with a strong […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[2317,1220,1097,1101],"class_list":{"0":"post-32681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-heaven-hell-records","10":"tag-power-metal","11":"tag-thrash-metal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}