Darkspace: Dark Space III I

Expansive Swiss alchemists leave you stranded in outer space

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Switzerland’s Darkspace create cybernetic black metal that evokes the deepest recesses of the universe and yet allows a truly overwhelming feeling of being trapped to filter into their huge sound. The trio utilise intriguing programming work to create inhuman sounds and ramp up the tension of their singular take on black metal.

All three members contribute to the vocals here, giving the record multiple voices and dimensions while still remaining cohesive and, ultimately, terrifying in its intensity.

Opener Dark 4.18’s heavy breathing and metal scraping on metal is accompanied by layers of vast, near-impenetrable sound, and if Dark Space III I can seem almost too much at times, that is very much the point and as such their music builds, twists and expands into all corners of the emptiness of space.

Dark 4.19 spins out into the darkness with huge electronic pulses before the band send out their waves of space black metal with Dark 4.20, which ends on utter bleakness and the knowledge that we are very much alone, in this world and in the outer limits./o:p