Darkspace — Dark Space I & II

Last year black metal didn’t work too well for me and my musical interests drifted off elsewhere. One of the few bands to pierce through still was Paysage d’Hiver, a Swiss band managed to combine a cruel lo-fi aesthetic with melancholy and beautiful ambience. The only member Wintherr turned out to also have another band.

Darkspace, as it turned out, already had two albums that were originally released in editions of 500 copies released in 2003 and 3005. Sadly these had already sold out when I came to the party. And what a party it is! The two bands have a lot in common but both are unique and very, very good in their own right. Paysage D’Hiver does have a tinge of the cosmic depth of Darkspace, but the latter is more direct, a little less melancholic and more aggressive.

These reissues of Dark Space I and Dark Space II come in black slipcases with silver print and everything inside is of the same colour. Even the cd’s are black, on both sides! It matches the music perfectly, the thick blackness comes in numbered slices as tracks are called Dark 1.1 to Dark 1.7 and on the second disc Dark 2.8 to Dark 2.10. As you can see the second albums consists of longer tracks and these also are a bit different in that they revolve around longer lines.

What makes this band so special is that they manage to sound lo-fi on one hand, but also majestic and massive that doesn't naturally come with this territory. The blazing drums and dense riffwork is augmented by deep, melancholic synths. Buried deep in the battering blizzard you’ll hear the howls and samples and an occasional soundeffect to add to the sci-fi atmosphere. This will ever so often break into quite ambient parts where you just find yourself waiting for hell to break loose again.

Reading this it might seem impenetrable material, but this Great Wall of Sound is extremely intrigueing and exciting. What could be argued to be a lack of dynamic in many cases, here it is a compliment and quite an accomplishment keep things as interesting as they are. The lo-fi is elevated to an art and the sci-fi isn’t as corny as it may seem you'd find yourself sucked into this Black Hole quite easily.