Force Of Darkness came out of Santiago, Chile in 2001 with a very clear idea of what they wanted to do. Nabucodonosor III on bass and vocals, Seb Armageddon on guitars and Necrohell on drums formed the band with the intention of playing dark and Extreme Metal, and over the years they developed into one of those Chilean bands that understood the South American Black/Thrash Metal tradition without getting trapped inside somebody else’s record collection. By the time ‘Twilight Of Dark Illumination’ appeared through Iron Pegasus in 2021, they had already been around for twenty years, although this was only their third full-length.
That long gap between albums is actually important. Force Of Darkness released their debut in 2006, followed ‘Darkness Revelation’ in 2010 and then took another eleven years before ‘Twilight Of Dark Illumination’ arrived. During that period they were not sitting around trying to reinvent themselves every five minutes. The band continued refining the same basic ingredients, and on this album you can hear a group that knows exactly how much speed it needs and when to pull back and let a riff breathe. Their early material was heavily rooted in the primitive South American Black/Death/Thrash Metal tradition, particularly the kind of violent attack associated with Sarcófago, but the newer material has more control in the songwriting without losing the ugliness that attracted people to the band in the first place.
‘Retribution Of The Crowned Chaos’ opens the album with the kind of riff attack that immediately tells you where Force Of Darkness come from. The guitars move between rapid Thrash Metal patterns, tremolo picking and sharp changes while the drums keep everything moving without simply turning the whole track into one long blast. Nabucodonosor’s vocals are harsh and aggressive, sitting somewhere between Black Metal rasping and a deeper Death Metal delivery, and the bass is much more noticeable than it tends to be on a lot of this style of record. There is a lot happening underneath those guitars, and repeated listening brings out details that can easily disappear when the first impression is simply speed.
‘Absolute Verb Of Chaos And Darkness’ and ‘Sons Of Hypocrisy’ keep the momentum high, but Force Of Darkness are already showing that they have become more interested in riff construction than simply trying to play faster than everyone else. This is where the South American influence becomes more interesting because the band are clearly coming from the same old-school tradition, yet they are not trying to recreate ‘I.N.R.I.’ or ‘Bloody Vengeance’ track by track. The influence is in the aggression, the primitive spirit and the way the riffs are allowed to sound hostile rather than polished into modern Extreme Metal.
‘Athame’s Wrath’ gives the album another angle with more recognisable Thrash Metal movement and some melodic guitar work, while ‘Genesis Of Evil’ stretches the songwriting further. There is a change of pace in the middle of ‘Genesis Of Evil’ that brings in a more traditional late 1980s Thrash Metal character before the song kicks back into the harsher material. That ability to move between different forms of Extreme Metal is one of the things that separates this album from bands who simply stay at maximum speed for forty minutes and hope the listener survives.
The second half is where ‘Twilight Of Dark Illumination’ becomes more interesting. ‘Metempsychosis’ is short and direct, but ‘Choronzon’s Desire’ slows everything down considerably and gives the album a darker, more ritualistic feeling. The spoken passages and heavier pacing create a completely different mood from the opening attack. I actually like that Force Of Darkness were willing to do this because the song gives the faster material more impact when the album returns to aggression. ‘Templi Serpens’ then brings the speed and riffing back while retaining some of the more melodic ideas that had appeared earlier.
‘Darkness Shall Prevail’ is the longest track at nearly eight minutes and gives the band enough room to bring together several of the things they have been developing throughout the record. There are fast sections, slower passages, melodic guitar lines and heavier bass presence, but it does not feel like a collection of unrelated ideas thrown into one long song. The track takes its time before reaching its later sections, and that makes the final part of the album feel considerably more substantial than if they had simply ended with another three-minute blast.
The production is also worth mentioning because this is not the filthy, barely controlled recording that somebody might expect from a Chilean Black/Thrash Metal band working with these influences. The guitars are clear enough to hear the details in the riffs, the drums have plenty of impact and the bass has a proper presence underneath the guitars. Some listeners will probably prefer something dirtier, especially if their idea of South American Extreme Metal begins and ends with the rawest Sarcófago and Vulcano recordings, but I don’t think Force Of Darkness were trying to make another 1980s rehearsal room document. The cleaner sound allows the songwriting to come through, particularly in the slower sections and the guitar work.
What I like most about ‘Twilight Of Dark Illumination’ is that Force Of Darkness have allowed twenty years of playing together to show without losing the character that made the band worth following in the first place. They still sound like a Chilean Black/Trash Metal band with a serious appreciation for the old South American tradition, but there is more attention to arrangement, pacing and musicianship than on their earlier material. The riffs remain the main attraction and the band never loses sight of the hostile atmosphere they were built around.
Chile has produced plenty of Extreme Metal bands who understand that particular combination of Black Metal, Death Metal and Thrash Metal, and Force Of Darkness belong to a generation that helped keep that tradition moving after the original South American pioneers had already become legendary. What makes this album worthwhile is that they are not simply recycling the past. They take those old influences, mix them with European Thrash Metal and Black Metal ideas, and come up with something that still sounds like Force Of Darkness.
After eleven years between full-lengths, ‘Twilight Of Dark Illumination’ was a long wait, but the album sounds like the result of a band that spent that time refining what it already knew rather than desperately searching for a new identity. It is fast when it needs to be, darker and more deliberate when the songs demand it, and packed with enough riff changes to reward repeated listening. For a band that began in 2001 with the intention of unleashing dark and Extreme Metal, Force Of Darkness stayed remarkably faithful to that original purpose while becoming a much sharper and more capable unit along the way.
