dark nature - sleep

Dark Nature 

Sleep
self-released; 2013

3.6 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

Dark Nature is a young band (the members are around 16 - 17 years old) based out of England who sound mature beyond their years. On their debut EP Sleep they sound more like a metal band from the 70’s like Iron Maiden at times, or an alternative band from the early 90’s rather than anything that the average  teenager is listening to these days. It’s a simple setup of guitar bass and drums but they have a big sound part of which I credit to their getting an almost perfect old 70’s British guitar tone. The guitars have this crunchy but not overly distorted sound which lets you clearly hear the bass and drums. Sleep contains five songs and a lot of variety. While it’s a good thing to not pigeonhole your sound this EP is a bit too disparate causing the flow of the album not to be as fluid as you may want it to be.

The first track “Drowning” is a pulsating guitar that intertwines with the feedback. They create a psychedelic twirl of sound that is simply a preemptive strike for the lead guitar solos, funky bass and thunderous tom work. The 70’s inspired concoction of noise transitions seamlessly into the next song “Punishment” which is a speed metal song with a nice dose of punk rock. “Punishment” is one of the highlights of the album as the song is simple yet catchy and has the perfect amount of attitude. 

“Tree Sap” takes another 360. This song is slower, played on acoustic guitar and is more of a ballad. Its not a bad song but was a bit unexpected when listening to the first two songs. They break out the distortion again for “Water & Earth” which almost falls in line with drone metal. The slower BPM and pulsating bass pays homage to the genre. Dark Nature closes the album with “Daydream Education” which reverts back to acoustic rock reminiscent of early 90’s alternative act.

It is obvious the Dark Nature is still discovering their sound. Being together for a little over a year and still being teenagers they have all the time in the world to refine their sound. In the meantime they have created some solid songs on their debut EP that are worth checking  out. 

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