Dark Light

UK's Dark Light pretty much sets the world record for Most Untimely Music AND Sleeve Art Combined in HM history and this will of course make them collector darlings on those merits alone. 1992 was not the year for a band like this to break anyhow or anywhere on the planet and it makes perfect sense that their one and only EP has remained completely buried by time & dust to the Olde HM fandom and collector elite until recent years.

With that being said it needs to be clarified that "Forbidden" is by no means an Overlooked UK Holy Grail, like for instance contemporary monsters like Slander or Shock Split and I think it fair that we point out the bad news first: B-side "Hold On" is, to quote their fellow countrymen Sore Throat, a "fucking horrendous" throw-away acoustic schmallad. A-side = Upside though. Both "Forbidden" and "Straight For Your Heart" present some very competent melo-HM/HR in a significantly more Swedish-sounding fashion than most everything we've heard from the UK isles. Pick any private/overlooked 1986-87, not-total-aor 7" or LP from Scandinavia's better HR scene and you have all the musical references you need right there.

And that pretty much sums it up. Hands on heart this EP will not live up to the expectations generated by the beautiful, b/w-kült sleeve but it would be unfair to call it outright bad. Closet wimps & private-pressing completists could do waaaay worse though...