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Three albums in three years - hard work certainly pays off! Enlighten The Darkness, ANGEL DUST's new masterpiece for the new millennium, compiles all of their qualities, talents and characteristics, and very well may be the best power metal album to hail from Germany in many years. In friendly and close cooperation with producer Siggi Bemm (Tiamat, Kovenant) the Dortmund five-piece manage to channel an intense album that is as tight as it is daring straight into your auditory canals. Always able to stun the listener with the highest quality of musicianship and delivery, what is equally amazing about ANGEL DUST is the diverse song styles the band are able to churn out. This, however, should be no surprise to anyone familiar with ANGEL DUST's recent works (especially last year's amazing Bleed) and storied history.
Perhaps it was pretty surprising for most when ANGEL DUST managed to re-appear in the international metal scene after a decade of rest, but thanks to the persistence of founding drummer Dirk Assmuth and his longtime friend and bassist Frank Banx the band are still carrying on with their infectious brand of metal. The band's second album, 1989's To Dust You Will Decay, after their debut, Into The Dark Past, sold over 30,000 copies in the German market alone. Problems amongst the band members made a cohesive operation impossible in those days, thus disbandment was the logical answer at the time. What had once been a thrash metal diamond-in-the-rough was now a polished power metal jewel, and in 1998 with new singer Dirk Thurisch the band signed to Century Media Records and delivered an impressive comeback with Border Of Reality. Available in the U.S. as an import only, Border Of Reality sounded the comeback alarm for ANGEL DUST, and the band stepped up to new challenges. Spared from personnel changes this time, the band was given the opportunity to prove themselves once again as a band and also to strengthen their unity on two European tours in 1998, one with Overkill and Nevermore, and later a stint with Jag Panzer. In addition, they also played two outstanding gigs at the Wacken Open Air and the Rock Hard Festival in August 1998. Motivated and creatively inspired by those successes, the band once again entered the Woodhouse Studios in Hagen to record their new album, Bleed (the U.S. version contains three bonus tracks and improved layouts/graphics not available in Europe). The result was astonishing once again, with the group showing a huge progression in songwriting as well as in their technical skills. Bleed gave ANGEL DUST the opportunity to experiment with modern sounds while keeping their trademarks of a tight rhythm section, heavy guitar grooves and the emotional and charismatic voice of Dirk Thurisch.
Though their roots are firmly planted in traditional metal, ANGEL DUST's creativity will always supply their fans with an unpredictable delivery, as stagnation is an unknown word to these icons. With their new offering Enlighten The Darkness, the band do just that; bring superior and well-crafted heavy metal to the forefront of a bleak and clouded world. The Thurisch and Banx duo are to be highly commended for their focused efforts, as Enlighten… gives us the boldness of speedy, harsh metal ("Let Me Live", "Come Into Resistance", "Cross Of Hatred"), mid-paced pounding numbers ("The One You Are", "Still I'm Bleeding") and the emotion of a lighter, deep power ballad ("Fly Away", "Beneath The Silence"). Never before has this band been in such a position to prove themselves to the entire world, and never before has ANGEL DUST's music been such a force to be reckoned with. After establishing themselves as one of the most versatile German heavy metal bands of the '90s, while still maintaining characteristics that made them a phenomenon in the late '80s, it's incredible to learn just how much momentum and creativity ANGEL DUST have entering the new decade.
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