UMUR
"A Darker Shade of Evil" is an EP release by Norwegian black metal act Fleurety. There´s been a lineup change since the release of the 1993 "Black Snow" demo as bassist Per Amund Solberg has left the band. The consequence is that Fleurety is a two man band on "A Darker Shade of Evil" consisting of Alexander Nordgaren on guitar, bass and vocals and Svein Egil Hatlevik on keyboards and drums.
Like the "Black Snow" demo this EP consists of three tracks where the second song is a short instrumental interlude between two noisy and simple black metal tracks. "Profanations Beneath the Bleeding Stars" from the demo is also featured on "A Darker Shade of Evil" while the other two tracks on the EP are new. Fleurety continues the very distinct black metal style they initiated on the "Black Snow" demo . The music is not very original or exciting to my ears and it´s definitely the high pitched and weird vocals that give the music its identity. The rest is rather generic.
The musicianship is unpolished and raw. I´m not impressed but the band members are probably very young at this point so it´s excusable to some extent.
The sound quality is really bad. Very raw and unpolished lo-fi sound quality.
"A Darker Shade of Evil" is not a release that pleases me much. Bad sound quality, simple/ primitive compositions, below average musicianship and some of the most annoying high pitched vocals I´ve ever heard mean that I can´t give this EP anything else but a 1 star rating. In addition to the mentioned weaknesses all tracks are also available on the 2003 re-issue of Fleurety´s debut album "Min Tid Skal Komme (1995)" which makes the purchase of this EP even less attractive unless you are a hardcore collector.