Before KISS was the name of a band, it was a U.S. Navy principle, an acronym that stood for "Keep It Simple, Stupid." It argued that "simplicity should be a key goal in design, and unnecessary complexity should be avoided." It's a school of thought that goes for music too, and when you deviate from it, sometimes it does produce good results. And sometimes it doesn't, as is the case in FORCE OF MORTALITY's latest, "New Dark World." This is the English hard rock/metal band's first full-length effort after the 2017 EP "Reincarnate The Immortal," and we do mean "length" – these are long tracks, the shortest coming in at a bit under four minutes. And that gets problematic early on.

"The Fall" has a quiet guitar melody that transfers to the bass (a cool idea) before adding crunching drums and power chords. The intro, as is the case pretty much throughout, is overlong. The sonic mix is heavy on the treble, kind of shallow, without much depth or roundness. Andrew has a pleasantly gritty voice, but there's a weird melody going on behind his voice in the verse – too loud to ignore, but too soft to make out completely. His voice, like the mix, is a little one-dimensional, not much light and shade, just a single style. The high-end drums later on are a little deadening in that there's no respite from their assault. There's a section of chords with pauses in between (a tactic they use in an almost identical form later on), and then it ends.

What this is exactly about is a bit murky – it hints at loss, perhaps of a good friend ("The days are longer/But I got you with me to help me" and then "I see you drift and you leave us" and "The grief it lingers/I believe I'll see you again friend"), but then it also hints at a crime ("I'll be the one to take the blame/This guilty conscience it still haunts me" and "What was done I still can't explain"). Well, there needs to be an explanation because we have no clue what happened in this song – by its end, we are no more enlightened than we were at its beginning.

"Divided Nation" has a heavier, more muscular crunch to start before it heads into a morbid, doomy march with lots of bass – very SABBATH at its heart. The section after the second chorus features bass leads, some heart-pounding drumming, jagged riffing, and much playing with tempo. Again it goes on too long, especially in the instrumental sections – they play well but they tend to give us everything in every song and hold little back. But this makes a more definite lyrical statement, as the title would indicate – "We can't agree on the same direction" and "All who we know are at odds with each other" and "This divided nation is all our dumb creation" – and it holds a bit of a warning, too ("Who waits in shadows while the world is in chaos" and "One side will dictate that you abide by their rules/While the other side waits for the kill"), as well as a condemnation ("Can you hear all the sheep who believe in what they all hear/They will all surrender to their silent oppressors"). It's a bit awkwardly-worded, granted, but it makes valid points.

The shortest track, the also rather SABBATH-esque "Driver," starts with a nice deep chug powered by the bass and tasteful drumming before it opens up, but again their intros go on too long. The solo section, however, is hectic and nicely brief. The lyrics here are not really rhymed or structured well, and again there's no real clue what this is trying to say. It again hints at a crime being committed perhaps ("The plan is shot, every man for himself" and "We hear the cries of those that you know, who don't make it out clear"), and the chorus hints at a subsequent getaway, but exactly what was done and why and what the ramifications are is left unsaid.

"Eponymous" begins again with Colin's bass – I like their focus on bass and it's played well, but this has a very similar chug to the first track and another long intro, the segments repeating twice before settling into a melody that kicks off the chorus. This is pretty Bon Scott-era AC/DC sound wise (think "Jailbreak"), but the bridge/chorus is frustrating because the lines that go from left channel to right aren't loud enough, so you can't clearly make out what Andrew is saying. In the segment before the slow verse, it seems like the bass is trying to find its place and be heard instead of being comfortable. The title is clever since they mention "the force of mortality" (get it? "Eponymous"?), and it's kind of making a comment on "the force of mortality" being pervasive, like we can't escape the fact that we will die eventually (and in actuarial science, the concept is defined as "the instantaneous rate of mortality at a certain age measured on an annualized basis"), but it doesn't do it exactly well. It says things like "Never give up, don't say die" which kind of is at odds with the overall concept, especially when it then turns around and says, "The force is here to take us all." It's an interesting idea but flawed in its execution.

After a suitably eerie and dark start, with effective bass and guitar pairing and a strong guitar melody, "Hades" becomes nine minutes of noodling that needs to get to the point. Two and a half minutes in, we finally get the crunch that kicks it off in earnest (and Danny's nice drumming to boot), but it's three and a half minutes before the lyrics start. Several lines are delivered, punctuated by chords and drumming, then it goes into another lengthy instrumental section, so it loses momentum (and the guitar tone is harsh, too treble, and almost deadening in that it doesn't change much at all). The "chorus" goes into an awkward section in which the drums are contradicting the rhythm of the guitars – they're going one way while the guitars go another, and that continues into the guitar solo section and then into the end. It's confusing listening.

By the title, the subject matter is fairly clear (the lord of the underworld taking over because of our moral failure and the failure of God), but what exact point it's trying to make is not; it's not even particularly evil because it's delivered in the same sort of matter-of-fact way vocally throughout. "King Of Kings" has a good grind, but again it's a little off rhythmically between guitar and drums. Andrew gets a nice little Bon/Lemmy growl going here as a change of pace in the first part of the verses, but it's not loud enough for you to appreciate it and he quickly goes back to his usual tone. The last verse is totally in his higher register with no variation – he does struggle to hit the notes, so it makes the end of the story (a resulting car crash) have less impact. It's about racing cars, pretty much, the need for speed, "looking death right in the face," etc., but it has little urgency and its delivery is rather flat.

"My Serenity" is heavy enough, but the liquidy bass line is kind of misplaced and situated way up in the mix – in the chorus, it's a little intrusive, getting in the way of the vocal. There's a bridge with that same acidic lead guitar tone we've become used to – it's fine when paired with the richer-sounding rhythm guitar, but it's again too long, drifting off and meandering toward its end. The lyrical point of this is a mystery – it hints at wandering and rootlessness ("Never too long in one place we stay/Valley of my birth is not known to me," and note the awkward wording there in an effort to rhyme) and at the importance of family, but the final couplet in the second chorus is rather baffling ("You joined the crew and I took flight/Journey through to my serenity"). You can't just string words together to some kind of vague end – things have to have purpose and some sort of meaning, because listeners will be looking for that and wanting it (not just me).

"Born To Fire" has a weird start, almost like it was a mistake, before it gets under way – it happens again later and at the end, but at the end, it makes sense, especially with the addition of the wah effects. The verses are sing-songish (lines like "plan and execute," "hack and ride," "heaven and hell," "go back and forth," "act and react," "no right and wrong" don't help), and chorus is just this side of off-key. Again, I don't know what we're talking about here; the references to "you" and "we" and "they" are unclear (and "free and restrained" makes no sense no matter how you slice it), and the chorus resolves little.

The closing nine-minute instrumental "Even Badder" sounds like a warm-up with its quiet start before the melody kicks in, which is pretty solid if a bit repetitive (there are some jarring parts where the guitar briefly goes into a different key, too). Many segues and tangents and transitions later, it actually stops and goes back to a quiet part (not like the first one, mind you) that's actually quite pleasant, with nice rim-shot drumming. But the guitar melody gets rather numbing in its lack of variation and sing-song quality and just plain noodling in the same type of tone. Still more tangents and change-ups follow – including a repetition of the chiming sing-song melody – before it ends in a way that makes no reference to anything musically that preceded it. If your instrumental is not something the caliber of a "YYZ" or a "Switch 625" – succinct, memorable, with parts a listener can easily sing along to even without words, and where the ending references the beginning – don't do it. This is easily two or three separate pieces – maybe more – strung together.

So yes, keep it simple – and hone, edit, restrain, hold back. Established bands rarely go off like this, and it's a bit of a sin for such a young band, like FORCE OF MORTALITY, to do it. There are good ideas and potential here; it's just the execution needs work and there needs to be a lot more variety overall.