Darkspace – Dark Space I

October 13, 2003 • Haunter of the Dark

Few things are as disappointing as when you are recommended an album by someone who claims it's one of the greatest of all time, only to listen and find out you don't really care for it. Such was the case when I heard Darkspace, touted by many as legends of atmospheric black metal. I had high expectations for their debut album, but I wasn't overly impressed with it and haven't found a lot of reasons to revisit it.

It could be that I'm just jaded—I have listened to a lot of black metal lately—but Dark Space I never really interested me. In theory it should be good, though. It's a nice mix of ambient atmosphere, chugging deathy riffs, screaming tremolo and blast beats. But these riffs and atmospheres don't stand out in my mind as being much different from a lot of the other black metal like it I've heard; we have echoes of Immortal, ColdWorld, maybe Wolves in the Throne Room, a mix of older and newer black metal styles. It's actually kind of neat to hear a fusion like that, but at the same time I feel like I'd much rather listen to the artists that I already know that sound like them. At the same time, I do enjoy the atmosphere quite a bit, and some of the guitar lines are pretty good, although nothing stunning.

Despite being black metal, the album's production is exceptionally bad for being released in 2003, which also makes it difficult to listen to. It's nearly all guitars; the drums, keys, vocals, and bass (if there even was any) are nearly indiscernable. Sure, sometimes the guitars play interesting things, but I want to hear what the drums and keys are doing too. Genre is no excuse for this sort of thing.

But my biggest complaint is definitely the length. Each track is incredibly long and drawn-out, making listening to the whole album almost a chore. After the third track I was already tired. I think a lot of that is due to the total lack of dynamics, making each track and incredibly dense wall of constant noise, and over-repetition in the riffing which make each track seem to just go on and on.

I am disappointed, because I was expecting this album to blow me away and that simply didn't happen. It makes decent background music but that's as far as I'm willing to take it. Considering the praise it's received I guess I'm just out of the loop on something; it may not be for me but obviously Darkspace has many fans so take my words with a grain of salt, I suppose.

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