Album Review: DARK DESIGN – Prey For The Future

Heaven And Hell Records – Out Now.

Young bands are the lifeblood of any music scene and innovations in recording technology have only seen their numbers grow in recent years. Sadly, easy access to said technology does not always guarantee success in the field of musical production.

Power is often taken away from the capable hands of professionals in order to satisfy tight recording budgets and skill alone is simply not enough to compensate today’s increasingly demanding listeners. A case in point is “Prey For The Future” – the debut full length of the Raleigh– based Thrash/Power Metal quintet Dark Design.

In the short bio provided by their label Heaven and Hell Records, Dark Design are described as a group of veterans whose love of all things fast and technical brought them together in early 2010.

I am not sure whether the title “veteran” is really fitting, especially since there are times on this album when you feel that attention to detail was not always their primary concern – problems that are further exacerbated by the album’s below-par production.

What does eventually save the day for these lads, however, is that for every moment where you feel that a certain theme is slightly unrehearsed or that a vocal part has somehow lost its pitch, there is a solid bass line or a flamboyant guitar solo whose quality is such that will simply blow your mind.

Following a short harmonic intro, entitled “In Media Res”, the album truly kicks off with “Dark Design” – a five minute Power/Thrash tune whose riffs lack depth as a result of an appalling sound but whose various solos are testimony to Mike Joyner’s unique skills on the six string.

Many interesting ideas converge in both the Maiden-meets- Death Angel piece “No Death” and its successor “Abiding Contempt”, but they both seem to somewhat suffer from bad sound and overreaching on the part of their composers. “Welcome To Your (Doom!)”, however, is the one song where the lads got everything right.

Opening with a bass line, reminiscent of the main theme of the all-time classic Metallica opus “Harvester Of Sorrow”, and featuring numerous meaty riffs and melodic solos, this song stands as proof that these guys are capable of great things – something that cannot be said of the less inspiring “Dragonmount” which soon follows suit.

Though both “Meditations” and the oriental-themed “Spice World” offer some inspiring moments, especially where solos are concerned, they could have used a bit more polishing, while the band’s riff-focused version of Kansas’ classic “Dust In The Wind” is clever and entertaining in equal measure.

As far as debut albums go, “Prey For The Future” may not be the most well-balanced or polished of releases, but it is a product of a band whose passion and talent, if properly harnessed and encouraged, is capable of producing great tunes in the future for all of us to enjoy.

If these guys manage to come up with the formula that will allow them to translate their inspiring individual ideas into coherent songs and, most importantly, find a good producer to help record them, then there is no reason why they should not have a long and bright musical career ahead of them.

For the time being, however, focus and more hard work should be the order of the day.

John Stefanis

Rating: ***1/2 (3.5/5.0)

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

Next session: Sunday 1 December

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio

David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 3 November 2024.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 29 October 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com

Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024

ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)