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In Darkness were a melodic death/black metal band from Santo António dos Cavaleiros, Lisbon, active through the 1990s and remembered for their emotionally driven blend of melancholy, aggression, and gothic‑tinged atmosphere. Formed in 1992, they emerged during the early rise of Portugal’s extreme‑metal underground, shaping a sound centered on loneliness, emotional collapse, and introspective darkness. Their work combines melodic death metal structures with black‑metal ambience and a strong sense of autumnal melancholy.

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Origins and musical identity

The band’s lineup included Neto (vocals), Francisco Santiago (guitar), Vasco (bass), João Lencastre (drums), and Gonçalo (keyboards), a formation documented in their early discography. Their style fused melodic death metal with blackened textures, supported by prominent keyboards that added a cold, atmospheric layer to their sound. Their thematic focus on emotional desolation and solitude set them apart from many contemporaries. Rate Your Music

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Early work: Remembrance from the Ancient (1995)

Their 1995 demo Remembrance from the Ancient introduced their core aesthetic: melodic riffs, sorrowful atmospheres, and a gothic sensibility. The cover and tracklist—featuring pieces like Whispers in the Dark and Nocturnal Sleep—reflect the band’s early fascination with dreamlike melancholy and nocturnal imagery. metal-archives.com

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Too Cold Inside (1997): the definitive statement

Their only full‑length, Too Cold Inside (1997), released through Eclipse Edições and later Guardians of Metal, stands as their most complete work. The album blends melodic death metal with doom‑laden moods and black‑metal accents, supported by atmospheric keyboards. The tracklist includes:

• Forever Broken Dream
• My Tears
• Long Autumn
• As the Moon
• This Emptiness
• Too Cold Inside
• In Passion
• Whispers in the Dark

The album is documented as a Portuguese release from 1997, with its style described as a mixture of goth rock, death metal, and doom metal—an unusual hybrid that gives the record its distinctive emotional weight.

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Legacy

Though their activity ended quietly, In Darkness remain a cult presence within the Portuguese underground. Their small discography captures a specific moment in the 1990s scene—melodic, sorrowful, introspective, and shaped by a uniquely Portuguese sense of emotional heaviness. Too Cold Inside in particular endures as a rare and atmospheric artifact of that era.

 

 

Remembrance from the Ancient	Demo	1995
Too Cold Inside	Full-length	1997