Our Darkest Days by Ignite: Punk and rock perfection. (Our Darkest Days - Ignite)

Member Name: azwethinkweizt

Product:	Our Darkest Days - Ignite
Date:	02/04/09 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic vocals, great choruses, melodies and lyrics.

Disadvantages: Some songs are perhaps too short.

Ignite have been making some of the best hardcore punk music since forming in 1993, but really started coming into their own with the release of 'A Place Called Home' in 2001. Where as before they sounded like a traditional hardcore band; (fast, agressive but with a sense of melody) with this album lead singer Zoli developed his more punk stylings into a richer hard rock style against the more varied (but still very much punk) songs.

Fast forward to 2006 and the album 'Our Darkest Days' which is perhaps two steps forward to the one step that the previous full length was in terms of prior material. The first thing that hits you (and really stands them apart from the rest) is how powerful and intensely melodic Zoli's vocals have become which will really pull in new listeners to the band...

Musically we have a very sharp, energetic punk-rock attack with a big hard rock influence which flies at you with the opening track 'Bleeding'. This track is perfect for anyone to decide whether they are going to enjoy the album and is over in barely 2 minutes! We're taken down a notch with the next couple songs 'Fear Is Our tradition' and 'Let It Burn' which are mid-tempo numbers with big, anthemic choruses that appear all over the album. Next up is one of my favourite tracks and is a straight up slice of fast, political hardcore punk about the communist occupation of Hungary (specifically the 1956 revolution) called 'Poverty For All'. This track is a fist pumping, gang shouting whirlwind that sends shivers down my spine hearing the conviction with which the lyrics are delivered:

'Poverty for all
But freedom's the exception
The Proletariat, now the
Red Bourgeoisie
The murder, the torture
The terror, the famine
Fifty years under the
Communist regimes'

That's all over in a couple minutes and is taken down a notch with the other single 'My Judgement Day' which is also one of the most commercially viable tracks which is more hard rock in style. The following track 'Slowdown' features probably the best chorus of the lot and a deffinate favourite. After this we get the tracks 'Save Yourself', 'Three Years', 'Know Your History' and 'Strength' which follow the albums trend of mid-paced punk-rock anthems and blistering hardcore in equal measure. While not particular stand outs, they are incredibley solid and each good songs in their own right.

And so to finish off the album we have a good cover of U2's 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' which I much prefer to the original and works very well as a fast song. The album closer let's you relax with the acoustic number 'Live For Better Days' which perfectly rounds off a pretty much perfect album (until the secret track at the end sung in Hungarian).

If I was to sum up the overall sound of this album briefly, I'd say that it sounds like the singer from The Scorpions fronting a hardcore punk band who can write big choruses and mix things up a little! As a big fan of the genre; I can safely say that no one does it quite as well as Ignite and I'd highly reccomend this album to any punk or rock fan.

Summary: An incredible album with much replay value.