Darko's self-titled EP could be half-decent shredding skatepunk in the tradition of Strung Out and certainly A Wilhelm Scream at certain points. But the band sound pretty sloppy sometimes, and I'm not sure if it's endearing or just, well, sloppiness. To top, the recording feels sort of rough and corrosive, and not in a good way. If they packaged and marketed this more as a demo it would make a lot more sense.

Things like that don't bode well for this EP. The riffs are cool and the vocals have this nice, Frankie Stubbs-ish quality and Jason Cruz raspiness to them, but I'm not sure if the songs are there either. "Yet We Breath" [sic] has a bridge that feels like it's building up with a murky, noodly lead, but it doesn't really go anywhere. The big shout-along that comes a little later (following a really AWS-ish part) sort of comes out of nowhere. The emotion feels a little more resonant in "Delgado" and "Blink", and the chuggy parts drive the former well, actually.

There's subtle tinges of promise here, but Darko has some work ahead of them.

STREAM
We Are Here
Knives
Yet We Breath
Delgado
Blink
Paper Mirrors