Austrian longtime melodic Death Metallers DARKSIDE’s 6th studio album has been recorded, titled "Inferno" – and it’s a concept album that needs to be explained a bit what it is all about. To put it shortly, "Inferno" is monothematical and features an adaption of the true story of Madeleine de la Palud. The events occurred at the peak of accusations in France’s witchcraft hunt, during which time the cases involving demonic possession, priests and nuns, often dominated by sexual themes, were particularly common. So there… Having a quick look at "Inferno", another somewhat and instantly noticeable thing about this record is there’s 20 songs on it, off which 5 are instrumentals. Anyways, the concept itself is obviously strong enough to arouse some interest in this album, but then again it’s still the music that counts at the end of the day, right? Nonetheless, these Austrian Death Metal veterans have done a careful job with the whole album, obviously spending hours and hours to get every single piece of this wholeness locked into the right spot. First off, the songs on "Inferno" come out varied, multi-layered, experimental and very ambitiously done indeed, telling right off the bat DARKSIDE really worked their asses off to get out something special this time – and at that, they have also been successful in many ways in my honest opinion. Partly a listener gets the kind of feel this album is like a soundtrack but done in the terms of dark and gloomy Death Metal; the way how we have used to hear them on some of their previous releases, too. In fact, it’s kinda limiting to call DARKSIDE as a melodic Death Metal band only because the band does cross some boundaries of progressiveness and Dark Metal more than occasionally within their music. The same applies the song material on "Inferno". There’s lotsa things to be caught up on this record, and with every spin, one surely picks up something new and exciting out of the content of the album. DARKSIDE’s true stronghold lies in their ability to keep both the story line and the musical concept tightly clued together, in which they have also succeeded in when creating everything for "Inferno" from scratch. The only problem with this album is the length: it clocks in at the 100:45min mark. In order to survive, one needs to have time to chew this double album carefully in order to get the best features out of it content wise. Getting the album listened within just one session, is without laying a bit, definitely tough – and with 2 sessions it certainly works better. "Inferno" is for the fans of DARKSIDE of course, but also fans of such names as MORBID ANGEL and PESTILENCE should find some pleasure, no doubts. More DARKSIDE: www.facebook.com/darksideofficialpage