By Adam Bowman

Coal Chamber's third album essentially contains all the things that Coal Chamber fans love: driving yet catchy beats, Dez's pissed-off-demon vocals, and spooky guitar intros. Although one of the genre's few bands, Coal Chamber keep spook-core alive and beating in "Dark Days." Songs like"Fiend", "Something Told Me", and "Watershed" all kick off with groove, but some other tracks are hindered by Dez's melodies, such as in the opening of "Glow", where Dez lunges for spooky, but falls somewhere between overdone and hokey. That's not to say he's horrible on the album, as I've got to give him props for the hook in the chorus of "Beckoned": "at least we're f*cked up together".

Outside of Dez's streaky melodies, the rest of the band's music is solid, as "Rowboat" is an excellent example of how to make the blues scary as hell. On the whole, "Dark Days" is the typical Coal Chamber album with some minor tweaks to minor things (Dez's vocals are seemingly louder than on previous Chamber albums, and Meegs is starting to incorporate a little Adam Jones in his sound). If you liked any of Coal Chamber's previous works, get this one and fast.