Sometimes nice surprises come unexpected. In my opinion the second record of Dagon is one of them. With the combination of thrash, melodic death, some metalcore and black metal sounding guitar parts they are rather convincing. The guttural vocals and black-metal shrieks follow one after another, that's not new, but they get away with it very well.

O.k., the drum sound could have been better and heavier, but the rest is nice stuff to hear. Dagon puts melody above ultra-heavy, sometimes they sound as a thrashy Iron Maiden on XTC. Many times the band 3 Inches of Blood enters my mind; I think that's also because of the 2 different styles of vocals. Of course the music they play is as original as a grey car, but at least they do it with flair and the songs are rather good. On top of that they put in the good guitar solos and it's complete.

Fans of 3 Inches of Blood, Children of Bodom and Dark Tranquility have to take a listen for certain. Others who like melodic death metal with thrash and metal influences and clear grunting and screeching should take a shot too.