Emerging from the historic metal heart of Athens, DARKLON returns with their third full length offering, “Mind Reaper”. Since their formation in 2017 and the 2019 debut “Rise From Death”, the band has been a steadfast force in the Hellenic scene, known for dragging the listener into the trenches with their throbbing Metal sound. While their 2023 sophomore effort “The Redeemer” leaned into more epic and occasionally thrashy territory, “Mind Reaper” intended more with growing their sound further. The noteworthy shift for this 2025 release is the arrival of new vocalist Bill “The Kid” Chrepas (ex – WILDFIRE). Musically, the album feels like forged with the intention of making this a relentless barrage of rhythm driven worship. From the opening fury of ‘In The Abyss’ to blazing out with ‘Psyched Out’, the guitar work of Dave K. Krasonis remains the soul of the band. He is certainly a riff machine with his razor sharp, complex, yet consistently groovy playing style. While his playing is rather technical, it also exudes lots of character, like a fluidly roving android robot. Tracks like ‘Powercast’ and ‘Soul Stealers’ are meant to give adrenaline charges, yet show that interesting balance between power and melody echoing the wonderful era of VICIOUS RUMORS, METAL CHURCH and Swedish RAM. With replacing Nikos Migus A., Chrepas brings a performance heavily reminiscent of the legendary Jon Oliva. Also, with his shrill shrieks, he sometimes recalls RAM’s grouchy Oscar Carlquist. Throughout, his delivery anchors the record with a solid mid-range that leans into lines with deliberate weight, while his piercing upper register adds a necessary fire to the band’s muscular arrangements. This change has seemingly pushed DARKLON’s sound closer to the “Power Of The Night” era SAVATAGE vibe, blending anthemic Heavy Metal with subtle progressive undertones. While the guitar work and overall maniacal allure contribute to nostalgic sentiment, bassist Savvas and drummer Geor also reminds more strongly that DARKLON recalls OMEN and SAVATAGE from days of old. The record sounds dense and heavy, intricate and fast and outright metallic at times, evoking techpsychos created machines which pulling the strings to the breaking point. Some of the solos are insane; like the escalating towards the end of ‘Mind Reaper’, which is in a class of its own. The production, handled by Stathis Pavlantis, avoids the over polished pitfalls of modern Metal. Instead, it captures an organic, old school grit where the record rumbles with a precision that keeps the momentum lethal. Accompanied by Michael Syrigos’ striking artwork, where a warrior monster is clutching brain matter, “Mind Reaper” serves a grim visual and a definitive statement on humanity being doomed by tech domination, and sonic manifestation of the DARKLON growing power as a force to be reckoned with in the modern era of Heavy Metal. Find out more about the band and label here: www.facebook.com/darklonmetal, www.facebook.com/noremorserecordsgreece