Review by Greg on April 30, 2026.

In Malice's Wake. The guys are one of the absolute best-kept secrets from the land down under – in fact, so well-kept that, despite having known their name since forever, by the time the promo for "The Profound Darkness" popped up on my screen I realized I'd never really took a proper deep dive into their discography. Luckily, I had plenty of time to correct my dreadful past mistakes, but that's another story. Still centered around the Farrugia duo – Shaun (vocals, guitars) and Mark (drums) – from their very inception, almost a quarter of a century ago, they've been preaching the holy word of thrash since day one, so much so that I suspect they were fed thrash since they were in utero. Be that as it may, they truly find their footing with second instalment "The Thrashening", before finally morphing into a remorseless riffing machine with subsequent works, flirting with more and more extreme sounds, not unlike what Warbringer were cooking roughly in the same period.

In light of this, I find it funny to see that Mark also had a stint in melodic thrashers and fellow citizens Envenomed, because here we're worlds apart from that. In Malice's Wake are firmly planted in death metal territory, but even the thrashier segments are delivered with such an impressive punch that your ass will never stop getting kicked. Again, all of this isn't entirely new for the band, but "The Profound Darkness" shapes up to be more concise, toning down the sometimes excessive song lengths which still yielded awesome results at times (I'm specifically thinking of the title track of "The Blindness Of Faith"), but more often than not had the side effect of diluting the Aussies' immense destructive potential. As such, I don't see any issues with focusing on efficiency and jumping from one section to another without too much pondering. It helps that Farrugia has never been a conventional riff writer, and along with other axeman Leigh Bartley (also in Harlott) are down to give anyone a lesson in riffing. The blackened death maelstrom introducing the opener and title track reveals a band eager to outperform their peers, from the frequent blast beats to the frontman's determined growls. Slower sections aren't forbidden, but they're rarely dragged on for more than a minute at best. Cool moments abound throughout – the elaborate riffing in 'The Last Song', or the hammering, percussive pre-chorus riffs in 'The Great Purifier' and 'The Darkness Below Us', which are honestly better than what they're supposed to introduce. Even little twists like that blunt title growl at 1:53 of 'Beyond Death' stand out on their own. First single 'Numb To Paradise' is perhaps the clearest statement in this regard, sounding like something that could have been written by some blasphemous Swedish death/thrash outfit.

Downsides? Well, 'The Last Song' isn't really the last song, for starters. Man, that is flagrant false advertising. Now, more seriously, the disorienting riffing and never-ending tempo changes are simultaneously the album's greatest strength and main flaw. Strength because it all leaves you in a constant state of distress, always waiting for something extremely dangerous to happen, in a way only bands I hold sacred like The Crown used to do (and it isn't a comparison I make lightly); flaw since you have to be ready to be let down by some of the excellent riffs ending way too quickly, or by the tempo dropping way too abruptly. The opener's intro is once again a clear example, as it all keeps building and building until potentially climaxing with the imposing riff at 1:37 (side note: I'll never stop fanboying over bands when they stop all the music for a couple of seconds and then drop you a motherfucking sledgehammer like this one), before just abandoning it after a mere 20 seconds, never picking it up again in the song. The same happens in 'Upon My Flesh', where the chorus is kickstarted from a similar rest, but just for one measure. For sure, none of these nine songs can be considered conventional in any way, so it would be unfair to fixate on this alone. Not to mention, these are minor issues that pale in comparison to the guitar parts' sheer quality and the total ease they bludgeon you with.

This is likely the most accurate way to describe "The Profound Darkness" – and In Malice's Wake as a whole, really – it's... fucking metal, riffz, duuude. You can draw your own conclusions from that. As a very amateur excuse for a music critic in my free time, my last point is that their stuff still seems to lack that magic touch of memorability, although keeping the total length below the 40-minute threshold helps keep it from becoming overwhelming. But as a metalhead, most of these words are utterly pointless. Just blast it at full volume, no questions asked, and be thankful for it.

Rating: 8.3 out of 10

Review by Jack on April 10, 2002.

Horizon’s debut album “The Sky’s the Limit” is a perfect example of a completely and utterly average power metal album. Sure, there is nothing specifically wrong with “The Sky’s the Limit”, Horizon was formed in 1998, so these boys have got a decent amount of playing experience with each other (don’t take that the wrong way). All chords are played expertly, it is a semi-diverse power metal record, with examples of heavy metal and progressive sections.

While the elements that make “The Sky’s the Limit” in the good category are pretty decent, there are just as much ordinary attributes that bring them down to earth with a slight thud. Horizon seem comfortable playing within their niche of metal and not really trying to expand upon a basic power metal sound that they have started. If Horizon are content and happy to bring out semi-decent, but definitely not mind-blowing albums like “The Sky’s the Limit” then I see good luck and congratulations to them. But the fact of the matter is that I believe that no-one is truly satisfied with their musical output at the end of the day, and I guess that is why we often see more than one album from a band.

From what I can gather “The Sky’s the Limit” is a concept album based upon human choice, being ‘Caught in the Middle’ and striving to live out your dreams. That in itself is pretty cool, as I do enjoy a good concept and story to my albums.

Bottom Line: While being a pretty average record and there are better albums out there, Horizon’s debut contains some pretty interesting musical thoughts; the track ‘Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is’ is one such example of the potential these guys have. Average-ish.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 6
Atmosphere: 5
Production: 7
Originality: 4.5
Overall: 5

Rating: 5.5 out of 10