INTENSE (UK) - DARK SEASON (EP)

1."Against the Grain" (5:03)
2. "Deny" (3:27)
3. "Greed" (4:10)
4. "Dark Season" (3:56)
5. "Crystal Mind" (3:54)
6. "This Is Your Fate" (6:39)

Intense from UK basically produced very heavy and melodic power metal. A healthy mixture of different musical influences overall. Influence from Pantera, Judas Priest, Iced Earth, and maybe a bit of Meshuggah can be hear in the entire EP.

Dark Season started off the EP with first song "Against the Grain", strong and heavy intro. Though the style is more old school, the production is extremely fabulous, making the music modern as well. "Deny" started with a catchy groove, and chunky riff everywhere. The vocal is very versatile, remind me of Matt Barlow, Geoff Tate or even a bit of John Bush at times. "Dark Season" and "Crystal Mind" blow me away with their Choppy riff and tight musicianship.

Nothing original here, but Intense manage to chunk in a lot of catchy and groovy tunes, one of the better bands out there. I love the sounding of this EP, especially coming from an unsigned band.

For those who like Iced Earth, Judas Priest, Shadow Keep, Persuader. This is strongly recommended.