REVIEW: GAME OVER - When Darkness Falls
Thrash metal has never exactly been known for its chill. It exists to be loud, fast and vaguely threatening to anyone within a five-mile radius. GAME OVER clearly didn't get the memo about taking it easy, because When Darkness Falls arrives with all the subtlety of a chainsaw through a bedroom door. Just a year removed from Face The End, the Italian thrash metal maniacs are back with their seventh studio album - and apparently decided that one year was more than enough time to sharpen the knives and make everything considerably more feral.
From the opening seconds of Hollow And Cold, there is no gentle introduction. No atmospheric little warm-up. No polite invitation to take a seat. The riffs come swinging, the drums are immediately having an existential crisis and Danny Schiavina sounds like he has several grievances to settle. And honestly? Good. GAME OVER have never been interested in reinventing the thrash wheel, but When Darkness Falls proves they don't need to. They know exactly what they want this band to sound like and, more importantly, they know how to make it fun.
Two Souls One Flesh comes charging in with exactly that combination, while Break Away refuses to let the adrenaline levels drop. This is music for people who hear the words "take it down a notch" and immediately turn the volume up. Then comes Fight For Your Mind, bringing one of the album's more infectious moments. The riffs are vicious, but there is an undeniable anthemic quality running through the record. GAME OVER aren't just writing songs to be listened to - they're writing songs to be yelled back at them by a room full of people who have probably lost their voices three songs earlier.
Scream It Out is, thankfully, not false advertising. The band's sense of humour also saves When Darkness Falls from becoming another overly serious exercise in LOOK HOW DARK AND MISERABLE WE ARE. The album's world is crawling with demons, monsters and general nightmare fuel, heavily influenced by the glorious trashy brilliance of 80s horror cinema. It's dark, but there's a wink behind it. Think blood, guts and VHS static rather than sitting dramatically in a dark room contemplating mortality.
Curse Of Strahd is the obvious horror-loving bastard of the record, embracing that aesthetic head-on, while What Fate Brings and Beneath The Ground keep the darker atmosphere bubbling underneath the surface. And then there is the rhythm section. Leo Molinari and Anthony Dantone are essentially responsible for ensuring this thing doesn't fly completely off the rails. The guitars can go feral, Schiavina can spit fire and the songs can barrel towards the nearest wall at 100mph, but the foundation stays brutally tight. Luca Zironi gets plenty of room to turn the guitar into a weapon, and there are riffs here that seem specifically engineered to cause neck problems.
Self Denied is another reminder that underneath all the speed, there is a seriously disciplined band at work. The chaos sounds chaotic - but it isn't sloppy. That's the trick. By the time Command To Die rolls around, When Darkness Falls has essentially spent the previous nine tracks kicking the door off its hinges and setting fire to the furniture. There is no grand emotional comedown. No gentle landing. Just one final command delivered with the subtlety of a boot to the throat. Produced, mixed and mastered by Simone Mularoni at Domination Studio, the album sounds every bit as aggressive as it should. The production gives the riffs enough bite without polishing away the band's personality, while the drums retain the impact needed to keep the whole thing moving at frankly irresponsible speeds.
What makes When Darkness Falls stand out is that GAME OVER understand the most important ingredient in thrash: fun. Yes, it's heavy. Yes, it's aggressive. Yes, there are enough riffs here to make a chiropractor very wealthy. But there is also personality. The horror obsession, the dark humour, the hardcore influence and the sheer refusal to slow the fuck down all combine into something that feels authentically GAME OVER.
This isn't a band desperately trying to convince anyone they're still dangerous. They're simply proving that they are. When Darkness Falls is fast, filthy and gloriously unbothered. It's old-school thrash with its middle finger firmly raised, a horror movie playing in the background and absolutely no intention of hitting the brakes. Full speed or nothing. GAME OVER chose nothing.
Score: 7/10
When Darkness Falls will be released on 18th September 2026 via Scarlet Records.
Words: Mia Gailey
Photos: Simone Furia
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