OPHTHALAMIA — A Journey in Darkness (review)

OPHTHALAMIA — A Journey in Darkness album cover Album · 1994 · Melodic Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"A Journey in Darkness" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish black metal act Ophthalamia. The album was released through Avantgarde Music in 1994. Ophthalamia was created by IT (Abruptum, Vondur) and at various points in the band´s career members of acts like Dissection, Swordmaster, Godsend, Pan.Thy.Monium, Marduk and Edge of Sanity, have been part of the lineup. On "A Journey in Darkness" the lineup consist of IT (Tony Särkkä) on guitars, Winter (Benny Larsson) (Godsend, Pan.Thy.Monium, Edge of Sanity) on drums, Mourning (Robert Ivarsson) on bass and the notorious Shadow (Jon Nödtveidt) (Dissection) on vocals.

The music on the album is melodic black metal with strong roots in traditional heavy metal. The lyrics evolve around a fantasy-world called Ophthalamia and there is a generally adventure themed atmosphere about the album, which song-titles like "A Cry From the Halls of Blood / Empire of Lost Dreams" and "Castle of No Repair / Lies From a Blackened Heart" also bear witness to. The music is definitely in the softer end of the scale when it comes to black metal and besides the raspy vocals, the music really isn´t that harsh. Fans of traditional heavy metal with lots of melodic guitar work, who can tolerate black metal type vocals, are the target group here.

"A Journey in Darkness" was recorded in the spring of 1993 at Unisound Studio, Sweden and was produced by Dan Swanö and Ophthalamia. While Ophthalamia doesn´t exactly sound like a Dan Swanö band, he has still put his mark on the sound production, which features that distinct Unisound Studio sound, and by laying down some guitars and vocals on the album under his pseudonym Day Disyraah.

"A Journey in Darkness" is a quality release by Ophthalamia. Great musicianship, relatively intriguing songwriting and a good quality sound production ensure that I´m entertained all the way through the album´s playing time. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Traumatica Metalcore
NO GUERRA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Within the Visceria Death Metal
NECKBREAKKER
Buy this album from MMA partners
EP 1 Sludge Metal
CHAOTIC AGGRESSION
Buy this album from MMA partners
Songs of Blood and Mire Black Metal
SPECTRAL WOUND
Buy this album from MMA partners
Everything Hurts And I'm Dying Atmospheric Sludge Metal
NEGATIVE BLISS
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Origin Of Infinity - Chronosphere (OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO)
ORIGIN OF INFINITY
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Kingdom of Heaven - “Pleasures of Pain”
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
Bosh66· 1 day ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 18 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 18 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 18 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed