THE DARKNESS: Easter Is Cancelled (HARD ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

When the album was released in October 2019, nothing could have led one to believe that our notoriously enlightened Englishmen would have had Cassandra's gifts. The title of their latest album ''Easter Is Cancelled'' was sadly prophetic, as everyone has experienced. This anecdote aside, The Darkness stabilized around the same quartet officiating on "Pinewood Smile" and releases its 6th studio album.

Even if it's easy to guess what we'll listen to with "the darkness", they always manage to offer us a surprise. When Hawkins bullfighters enter the arena, there's no reason to be bored. 'Rock And Roll Deserves To Dies' is a restless mandolin ballad in which Justin seems to be our accomplice in telling us the terrible news: rock and roll has had its day. His voice, at first doubled over the choruses, ends up with a high-pitched scream, giving the signal to his brother to launch a thunderous guitar solo. The song skillfully manages to find this precarious balance between uninhibited energy and intimacy.

The rest of the album skillfully plays on contrasts by proposing catchy, sensitive and terribly hard rock songs. From the martialo-celtic ballad 'Heart Explodes' to the grandiloquent 'Deck Chair', carried by its Victorian atmosphere, its bluesy guitar solo and its Mercurian voice, followed by the explosive metal-like eponymous track, The Darkness offers us the music we would have imagined playing in our wildest dreams, with a playful, sometimes impertinent (like the cover) but damn efficient touch. During these thirty-eight minutes and over ten tracks, nothing weakens. If the influences go from AC/DC to Queen (Roger Taylor's son officiates behind the drums) via Steppenwolf or even B52's (the nervous 'Choke On It' pays tribute to 'Planet Claire'), The Darkness frees itself from its elders. The voice of Justin Hawkins easily sweeping several octaves will never give itself a hint of ease by declining head vocals and falsetti. On 'How Can I Lose Our Love', he manages to surprise again on his choruses by venturing into areas where few can boast of having been there. On the ballad 'In Another Life', he offers a case of sensitivity that stays the course throughout.

"Easter Is Cancelled" offers us a collection of restless, crazy, sensitive but always inspired songs. Our Englishmen like to sprinkle their musical terrain with mines but succeed in the incredible challenge of rising up after each explosion to keep jumping on the next one. - Official website

THE DARKNESS

EASTER IS CANCELLED

AUTRE LABEL

HARD ROCK