DARKSPACE — Dark Space III (review)

Album · 2008 · Atmospheric Black Metal

5/5 · 2011-08-13
Wilytank

What a band this is! Darkspace is one of my favorite black metal bands. Some say that they are just Paysage d'Hiver with better production, but that may just be the key here as I have never rated any albums from Tobias Mockl's solo project 5 stars.

"Dark 3.11" is an awesome song to begin with. It starts off with a dark ambient intro before storming off into the tremolos, blastbeats, and more melodic sounding lead guitar. There are certain hooks in this song that have my attention really grabbed. First is the break at 3:50, still maintaining some momentum until the blastbeating storm at the 4:15 mark. The song continues on with the same awesome elements until the next hook: the outro. Beginning at the 8:30 mark, I'm given the most awesome melodic lead in this song. The feeling is like being pulled into the gravity well of a star. It's fast, it's dark, it's atmospheric, it's black metal.

...and that's just the first song!

On "Dark 3.12", we have a slower intro with sorrowful lead chords. The tempo kicks into high power soon though, still keeping the sorrowful lead chords. I feel that these lead chords could be reminiscent of Paysage d'Hiver along with the extra atmospheric keyboards in this song. The sorrowful chords give way then to more Darkspace-esque tremolo melodic lead guitar. A good hook here is at the 3:52 mark where the guitars break into chugging while still going at high speed. The song slows at the 6:25 mark with a reintroduction of the sorrowful chords. Once more slowing down at 9:01, the gets ready to end. All the instruments stop except the sorrowful guitar and the super atmospheric electronics.

Time for "3.13". It starts out with the fast guitars already roaring before the drums get up to speed. This song seems to slow down a bit more often, though the the guitars and drums are still fast. We also get to see more of the sorrowful lead guitar, and we get to see more of it here than on the previous song. Strange keyboards here too. They sound like some weird violin in places. Chugging breaks in at 6:37 with triplet notes. Actually, the song sticks with the fast chugging for a while, which is a nice change of things because it wouldn't do for every song by Darkspace to sound exactly the same. It actually gets progressively slower though the lead guitar flys out on tremolo riffs as the song gets closer to its end.

A standout song is "Dark 3.14" for its slowness. It begins with awesome sounding hauting keyboards/lead guitar that make me feel like I'm standing on the edge of a huge abyss that could possibly be space. The note pattern of this haunting sound is actually the basis of this rather simple song. There are no screams to be found here, just black metal ambiance.

"Dark 3.15" is a creepy interlude...

"Dark 3.16" comes round then, and it starts off with chugging right off the bat. The riffing style is more odd in this intro. Then, ambiance and spoken word. When the metal kicks back in, we have the same odd riffing style that came before the break. Finally, at 4:13, the hyperdrive kicks in to the metal spaceship, and we are sent into black metal speed. The electronics sound like a raw orchestral performance at these parts. Drums slow down and eventually stop at 6:51 with guitar and spacy electronics still going. The song starts back up again to a breakneck pace not too long after. As the song approaches and goes over the 10 minute mark, the lead guitar gets really into my head and gives me more visions: the feeling of being caught in the blast of a supernova. Nearing the end, of the song, the programmed bass drum gets really furious. After everything ends, there is only ambience.

The final and longest song here is "Dark 3.17, which clocks in just short of the 17 minute mark. It starts of with ambience and hushed rhythm guitar roaring, before the rest of the instruments kick into a slower tempo with mid-paced chugging. Sorrowful lead guitar makes a return once again at 2:16 when the chugging breaks away. Tempo picks up at 4:10, though the song still stays relatively slow until the 6:05 minute mark where it gets to its highest speed for the song. Rather than giving me a vision of death in space this time, though, the vision I get from this song is the sight of some amazing looking nebula structures while out on a spacewalk. The song sinks back into mid-paced chugging at 7:52 and finally into single chords at 9:08. The song stays slow a long while here, displaying the divinity of the void before totally fading out. What a way to wrap this up.

Dark Space III is a must have for all black metal enthusiasts. It's not easy to find on physical format, but I can tell you that it would be well worth the effort to find.