After a brief spoken prelude about the eyes being the windows of the soul and the sensation of looking into eyes without a soul, 'The Darkest of Grays' commences proper with 'Sacred and Secret', a full-throttle hardcore rage that slams in at 200 miles per hour. 'Tentacles (Solitude Prevails' doesn't exactly ease of the gas any, and ups the metal and grunge quotient by at least forty per cent. The tracks are packed so tightly together there's no time to breathe. Hell, it's hard to tell where one ends and the next begins and the listener is left immediately breathless.
Some of the songs – and tiles, such as 'Long Live Depravity' may have a slight whiff of fromage about them, but they're salvaged by the sheer force of the delivery, and any potentially embarrassing lyrics are buried beneath an avalanche of guitars and pulverizing percussion.
If Fugazi went metal and had come out of the goth scene rather than Washington DC's hardcore (post)punk scene, they might sound something like this. Gritty, abrasive and entirely sincere, this is music that's heavy as concrete and sharp as a razor.
There are occasional moments that don't hurtle from the speakers at full throttle, and there are even graceful atmospheric interludes, such as 'We Are Translucent' and the neo-classical piano solo that is 'A Casket City' – and of course, these make the heavyweight numbers hit twice as hard when they crank the power back up to fifteen.
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When they slow the pace, the weight is increased proportionally: 'The Dead Return to War' is dissonant and as heavy as hell, yet still manages to incorporate moments of expansive and majestic sweeps of guitar. Herein lies Planks' greatest achievement: over the two albums and 16 tracks contained on this single CD reissue, they demonstrate multiple dimensions and a capacity to change not only the tempo but also the mood, something rare among metal genres. Impressive and oppressive in equal measure, this is essential listening for those who like it weighty but want something out of the ordinary.
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