Genre/Influences: Dark-electro, industrial, epic-EBM.

Background/Info: “The Darkest Hour” is the fourth full length album by Polish artist Jacek Wolański. This artist composes pure dark-electronic music, but seems to walk on a somewhat different path with this new work. There are 12 songs plus 2 remixes featured. 

Content: Cold Therapy has been always been fascinated by dark atmospheres and that’s why the previous album (cf. “Figures And Faces”) reminded me a bit of the Yelworc approach. “The Darkest Hour” doesn’t bring a radical change, but it definitely is a totally different approach in sound. The songs seem to have been touched by the hand of Laibach and Arzt+Pfusch. It’s mix of dark-ambient, dark-electronic and EBM, but the main characteristic of the work is the epic flavor hanging over the work. The half spoken vocals fit to the music. Most of the songs have been ‘sung’ in English, but you also will discover a track in German- and another in Polish.

+ + + : The epic influence isn’t new for this kind of music, but we have to admit there are not many artists dealing with it. It creates a heavy and blasting sound creating a rather original result. Cold Therapy in a way has reinvented its own sound. This album will not enter into history as the band’s most danceable work, but definitely as the most refreshing ones. The songs also reflect great sound treatments and dark, overwhelming melody lines. I also noticed a great remix by Dedicated Hardware.

– – – : The point with this kind of work, is that the sound formula also has something monotonous, which is mainly reflected in the production of the vocals.

Conclusion: This work sounds a bit like a challenge, but I really like it and even dare considering “The Darkest Hour” as the best work of the band and I’m sure Cold Therapy can still do better.

Best songs: “Wśród Cieni”, “A Dark Path”, “Through The Night”, “Ashes To Ashes”, “The Solace Of Silence – Dedicated Hardware Remix”.

Rate: (7½).

Artist: www.coldtherapy–official.com / www.facebook.com/cold.therapy.official

Label: www.advoxya–records.com / www.facebook.com/pages/Advoxya–Records/265765706059