A year and a half after the promising debut demo tape "The Horror", which I reviewed back in the day, the French one-man band BLACK HAMMER strikes again! What you get here is 4 new songs, that represent a more mature songwriting and a more unique sound than what the demo offered. Forget about the bands that I mentioned as a reference in the demo’s review, this time you should expect songs that are +/- twice as long as in the past, there is no shortage of slow-mid tempo parts and the overall atmosphere is more dramatic and serious. There are many Black / Thrash bands nowadays, but this one stands out musically, just like the cover artwork that Mark Riddick made for this release differs from the almost identically looking shitload of zombie-oriented drawings that he made for so many Death Metal bands. What’s really cool about this MCD / MLP is the fact that while showing a really big progress since the demo and being an interesting release in its own right, "Darker Days Will Come" still sounds damn raw. Here and there you will notice some silent drum beats that should replace the metronom during the bass / guitar recording, sometimes the vocals sound too saturated etc. Whether it was released "as is" intentionally or not, the organic feel of "Darker Days Will Come" surely doesn’t make the songs sound amateurish. I have no bloody idea when this project will deliver more new material (hopefully a full length next time?), but I have a feeling that it will evolve into something even more interesting and I’ll surely be one of the first to check it out. Meanwhile – do yourself a favor and give this EP a chance! www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Hammer/124245524353529, www.forgottenwisdomprod.com