“Route To The Outer Side” is the name of INTO DARKNESS’ debut album, but the Italian band has existed since 2011 and released quite a few demos, EPs and splits in the meantime. From the get-go this is an interesting release being a concept album focusing on astronomy. This led me to pull up a map of the Solar System to get a better idea of what’s going on over here. I was curious as to why it seems to present a journey out of the Solar System, but starting from Jupiter. Upon checking the band’s discography I can say it’s still a mystery, at least to me (not knowing at first this was the debut album, I thought that maybe it’s the second album in a series about this journey). But I did discover the band’s lyrical themes mostly focus on astronomy in the most literal sense, no fantasy, science fiction, any fiction at all, just the cosmic facts. This reminded me a bit of another Italian band named THECODONTION, who focus their lyrics on fossils and paleontology. Guess there must be a lot of academics in Italy starting Death Metal bands. But enough about the lyrics, let’s get on to the music. When I first heard about INTO DARKNESS ages ago I was into the band because they played Death / Doom Metal, the name being an obvious nod to the legends of the genre WINTER. This album is pretty far from that and it’s even a bit hard to put into an exact category. The best way to describe it would be Extreme Metal as it’s heavier, or at least more evil than Thrash Metal or Heavy Metal, but in today’s terms I bet a lot of people wouldn’t say it fits in with the SANGUINSUGABOGGs of the world. The question is: do you like riffs and thought out guitar music? Because if you do this might just be for you. The opening riff of the album reminded me a lot of DETERIORATE’s “Rotting In Hell”, especially in combination with the drumming and the vocal cadence. But after this riff we are taken to a section that sounds like Doom Metal with a riff that might fit a CRYPT SERMON song and then some sentimental guitar leadwork in the vein of Eric Daniels of ASPHYX and GRAND SUPREME BLOOD COURT, which brings me to another piece of this band’s trivia as they cite a lot of the Dutch Death Metal scene as an influence. Anyways, you can hear some more of those guitar leads on other songs too, like ‘Pluto’ for example. The second song starts with something that might be Melodic Black Metal or something influenced by BATHORY. Even the rest of the riffs, that are not so melodic, sound epic in the mid tempo fists in the air sort of way on this song in particular. The tremolo guitar parts with slow drumming do remind me of PENTACLE or ASPHYX though. Some of the galloping almost mid paced riffs also sound like a nod to those two bands. Overall, composition wise I’m reminded a bit of INFERNÄL MÄJESTY as the music is a lot of times thrashy, but the songs are well written with a lot of dynamics and guitar licks as a perfect accompaniment for the narrative vocals. Even the vocal style reminds me a bit of them judging by cadence and being growlier than the shouted Thrash Metal classics, but not very low as expected in Death Metal. This might be because of the Dutch influence too. Besides the main vocals you can hear some backing growls here and there that give it a gang vocals vibe sometimes (take ‘Pluto’ again for example) and most interesting you can hear spoken word parts on some songs which fits perfectly with the fact that the lyrics are basically an astronomy lesson. The artwork is fitting and my first thought was of “Soulside Journey” because of the blue tint, logo position and cosmic theme. Give “Route To The Outer Side” a listen if you’re a fan of the Dutch Death Metal scene or music in general. www.facebook.com/intodarkness, www.facebook.com/dyingvictimsproductions