One of the performances I was most looking forward to during the successful last edition of the two-day extreme metal festival Samhain organized in Maastricht was that of Darkspace. The Swiss ambient black metal collective is known for its colossal, hypnotic compositions, which regularly exceed the ten and even twenty minute mark. The three albums in particular that were released in the first decade of this century have acquired legendary status in the underground. Unfortunately, the performance was very disappointing. The audience heard a single, new song, which lasts almost fifty minutes in total, but which completely lacks the hypnotic intensity of the old material.
It turns out to be a harbinger of the new album Dark Space -II, on which this composition can be heard. The album is Darkspace’s first new achievement since the previous long player Dark Space III I (2014). The silence of a decade has to do with the fact that Wroth (Tobias Mckl) has also been more active in the meantime with his other underground project Paysage d’Hiver. Bassist Zorgh has now been replaced by new bassist Yhs. In terms of style, the new album appears to be a return to the first demo Darkspace I (2002), meaning that the black metal influences have largely given way to an approach that is more like an amalgam of ambient, industrial and drone.
Now the slight deception of the performance in Maastricht can of course be a snapshot of a case of differing expectations. That’s why I have Dark Space -II many listens. And admittedly the album has its moments. The minimalist approach, with an emphasis on drone-like guitar work, samples of a hypnotic female voice that can be heard in the background for almost the entire album, subtle industrial beats and mesmerizing keyboard effects, works quite well at times. The main problem is that the complete lack of variety ultimately makes any sense of atmosphere dissolve into a vacuum. Typical is the way in which the song finally seems to get going after ten minutes of build-up through some tormented background vocals. The momentum is destroyed just a few minutes later as the band switches back to the same minimalist, sleep-inducing rhythm.
Monotony can have its charm. In the best cases, the band in question manages to get the audience into a state of collective receptivity and hypnosis. In the case of Darkspace, however, I remain quite ambivalent about the approach taken. In small doses this form of ‘drone black metal’ is quite atmospheric, but the complete lack of development almost inevitably leads to lax attention. In the end it turns out to be a huge job every time Dark Space -II to persevere until the end and that cannot be the intention.
Track listing:
1. Dark -2.-2
