lukretion DARKHER is the brainchild of Northern England singer/guitarist Jayn Maiven, and The Buried Storm is her second full-length album. Jayn sings and plays guitar and bass on the new album, which she also recorded, produced and mixed. A few helping hands accompanied her on the record. Christopher Smith plays drums and percussions and a trio of cello and violin provides some beautiful string arrangements. The music blends together the delicate songwriting of dark folk with the thick atmospheres of doom metal, and will appeal to fans of bands like Chelsea Wolfe, Aleah, early Anathema and Antimatter, to name a few.

A common theme throughout the 8 songs of this record is the juxtaposition of acoustic and electric instrumentation and the balancing of soft and heavy sounds, painting a picture that is both sweet and bitterly dark. Gently strummed acoustic guitars suddenly make space for heavily distorted guitar riffs and slowly pounding drums. Cellos and violins soar in the background creating a drone-like wall of sound that is both immersive and spellbinding. A subtle use of effects and samples further enhances the suggestive nature of the music. Jayn’s haunting vocals are a perfect complement for the evocative musical background. Her vocals range from ethereal, soprano-like wails to more earthly rock singing, providing a well-rounded, mesmerising performance. Jayn also deserves praise for her production work, which strikes a perfect balance between lo-fi grit and sonic clarity, greatly contributing the album’s warm ambience.

The Buried Storm is best experienced as a whole, in one sitting. Several songs bleed into one another, reprising musical themes and ideas and creating a continuum that enhances the ritualistic vision of the album, like when the eerie, out of phase effects that build up at the end of “Lowly Weep” dissolve into the acoustic serenity of “Unbound”, creating one of the most hypnotic moments of the album. The more rock-oriented “Where the Devil Waits” is a beautiful, folksy dirge and another highlight of the record. Meanwhile “Immortal” is probably my favourite track here. It develops along a simple, forlorn guitar pattern that is repeated throughout the song, bringing to mind the work of Duncan Patterson with Anathema and Antimatter. The closing track “Fear Not, My King” is another special one, with its dark and disturbing chord progression taking us to a suitably gloomy conclusion.

The whole album feels like a transcendental ritual, with Jayn as its high priestess. As you immerse yourself into its beautiful dark music, reality slowly starts disappearing and a haze sets in to replace it, accompanying you through what feels like a one-way journey to death’s doorstep. It’s dark and gloomy, but also breath-taking and unforgettable. It’s one of the most immersive records I listened to this year and it deserves your full attention – so go on and buy it, you won’t regret it.

Necrotica One thing I've always loved about album art is how it reflects the music within. Of course the music should also speak for itself, but album covers can still give a taste of what's to come when done correctly. So, reader, I make this request: just look at the art for Darkher's debut album Realms. A woman with a black cloak looks down, as if in grief or simply melancholy, as she's enveloped in different shades of gray encompassing both the sky and the ground. A mass of storm clouds can be seen up above, and there's an aura of bleakness to the overall picture. After giving Realms repeated listens, I can certainly say that it lives up to its album cover in every way.

To clarify things, here's the deal: Darkher is considered the alias of a singer-songwriter known as Jayn Wissenberg, hailing from Yorkshire, England. In actuality, Darkher are currently a trio, the other members being guitarist Martin Wissenberg and drummer Shaun "Winter" Taylor-Steels (according to Facebook, at least). However, Jayn is definitely the heart and soul of this project; she's the vocalist, the primary guitarist, the producer, and the lyricist, so it's fair to say that she's the driving force. When you get to the music itself, Realms is a gothic experience with elements of doom metal, folk, post-metal, and ambient music; the atmosphere ranges from deeply melancholic to eerily unsettling, and there never seems to be an uplifting moment to be found. By far, the best aspect of the record is Jayn herself. Her vocals are simply wonderful, with a haunting and almost operatic quality to them, and they're layered over the music with a large amount of reverb. This works especially well in songs like "Hollow Veil" and "Wars," in which her evocative voice clashes with the metallic doom-laden guitars just perfectly.

Despite a consistently dark and grim atmosphere, there's still variety and genre-bending to be found. Realms happens to be one of those records in which the metal elements don't necessarily outweigh the softer moments. In fact, the intro "Spirit Waker" and the interlude "Buried Pt. 1" rely entirely on dark ambient instrumentation to establish the desired atmosphere; the latter is especially effective because of how Wissenberg's drawn-out vocals meld with the dreary soundscapes. Needless to say, it's a great fit for a song called "Buried." Of course, there's also "Buried Pt. 2," which builds on its predecessor with more frequent dynamic shifts and murky electric guitar riffing mired in incredibly slow tempos. But unfortunately, the one big problem I have with Realms has to do with the tempos in general. As much as the slow riffing and long instrumental buildups assist in enveloping the listener in the album's world, it also causes the record to be slightly homogeneous after a while. For instance, "Foregone" mostly relies on one particular motif as it builds and builds into a clangorous climax of pounding guitars and drums, but the sluggishly paced buildup feels a bit tedious and dull. At the very least, the track probably shouldn't have been the longest on the album at over 7 minutes. Regardless, the record still ends on a strong note with the fittingly-titled "Lament." It's one of the strongest pieces on the album because of its softer dynamics, and the acoustic guitar balladry is beautifully combined with Jayn's droning vocal performance. Ending Realms with something more somber and folk-influenced was a nice change in pace after the doom/post-metal material preceding it.

Honestly, as a debut, this is extremely impressive. It's gorgeous, intense, doomy-as-hell, and it takes pride in engulfing your ears in incredibly thick layers of darkness. Again, much of the album's quality comes from Jayn Wissenberg's sheer talent and charisma, especially behind the mic. Between her hypnotic vocal performances and the post-metal-oriented instrumental work, Darkher have proven that establishing a strong atmosphere and focusing on subtle songwriting shifts are among their strongest talents. The downtrodden beauty is really something to behold, and it'll be interesting to hear how they follow it up next time around.

Nightfly Darkher is the name used by Yorkshire based musician/songwriter Jayn H Wissenberg in partnership with her husband/guitarist Martin T Wissenberg. Whilst sounding totally unique if you were looking for a reference I guess you could include Darkher in that group of female songwiters/musicians like Chelsea Wolfe and Julie Christmas who whilst not metal per se manage to transcend boundaries and are sometimes of interest to metal audiences because of the heavier elements introduced.

I’ve lived with Realms, the debut album from Darkher for quite a while now, since last year in fact and been meaning to review it for some time. Even after repeated plays it still manages to surprise me with its captivating unearthly songs brimming with stark beauty. Musically it ranges from sparse minimalism like the ethereal drone on Spirit Waker and Burried Pt I to heavier doom laden guitars like on Hollow Veil and Burried Pt II. Drums are present, supplied by a number of drummers, but are kept simple and under strict control with no room or necessity for fancy fills. Guitars range from the afore-mentioned doomier riffs, cleaner sounding parts too, but also for effect with ambient textures, Foregone being a prime example. Acoustic guitars add a folk feel at times as well. The icing on the cake though is Jayn’s vocals. The evocative album sleeve shows Jayn stood ghost-like in the middle of the moors conjuring up images of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights – they’re both from the same part of the Country incidentally, giving an indication of what to expect. Her voice has a haunting melancholic beauty perfect for the stark autumnal atmosphere pervading the album. Lament, which closes things, is the perfect vehicle for this and a suitably memorable ending to a remarkable album.

Realms is a stunning piece of work. As already said this is not a metal album but if your musical taste’s stretch to include the likes of Myrkur then I strongly recommend checking out this incredible album and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.