Black Metal Trance part V: Darkspace

When a black metal band lists Juno Reactor among only 4 visible friends in their MySpace profile you can probably conclude that they're somewhat more prone to electronic experimentation than the average band. This is indeed the case with Swiss trio Darkspace, who rely more on synthesizers than any of the bands mention previously in this series, and possible more than any in the genre. There are still guitars though, but most of the time they're played to sound like a monolith of jagged drone buzz, so blown out that you cannot possibly decipher riffs or even chords. It's just howling wall of reverbed black metal distortion.

The rhythm section in Darkspace is handled by a drum machine, which further emphasizes the cybernetic space-terror theme their name and sparse graphics implies. A drum machine also allows them to play faster than would have been possible otherwise, which they take advantage of quite often. Some pieces are so fast in fact that the drums too turn into a diffuse swarm of menacing drone, with only the vocals as any point of progressive or rhythmic reference. But the singer sounds as though he's a few solar systems off into the distance - sometimes it's hard to tell if he's still going at it or if you're hearing some weird overtones from the guitars.

As with the previous bands I've written about, Darkspace make some long songs. Even longer than any of the others actually, if you disqualify the ambient track off of Filosofem. Dark Space II starts of with one that clocks in at 23:41 for example. With samples from Stanley Kubrick's 2001, this is truly cyber black metal, sort of like if Satan existed in the form of the coldness of the universe, or dark matter or entropy or something like that.

Pictured above are their three albums in their normal versions from Avantgarde Music, but there are limited versions too (more on Discogs.com). I totally recommend that you get all three. Listening to them all in sequence, while certainly not for the faint of heart, is a monumental experience. It's all so amazingly hypnotising and mesmerising that you have no choice but to be sucked in past its event horizon, and be lost in the black hole that is Darkspace.

Black Metal Trance part IV: The Ruins of Beverast

When listening to introvert and contemplative music I can't really escape the thought that it feels odd when it's made by a band rather than a single person. Weakling (see below) sort of get away with it since they have more of a desolate, post-war and somehow "open" sound, but Burzum clones that are multi-member bands will just never feel legit. With The Ruins Of Beverast we're on the safe side though, since it's just one guy playing guitars, bass, drums, synths, samplers and singing. I think he even mixed and mastered the whole thing himself, actually.

And speaking of mastering, again this epic/longform type of black metal seems to gravitate towards unorthodox sound ideals. The album pictured above, his second one called "Rain Upon the Impure" (link goes to the fantastic ultra-limited vinyl edition, check it out) is mixed and mastered lower in volume than any other metal record I've heard. I'm not sure how much of that is caused by studio ineptitude/fuckup and how much is intentional, but either way it works surprisingly well. Since pretty much the entire album has gone through a cavernous reverb and there is an enormous headroom in the mix, it is unusually lush for black metal. The high frequencies are gently rolled off too, so you can play this album very very loud. I could wish for a bit more hi-fi, but maybe I'm being picky.

Musically "Rain Upon the Impure" is sort of a less mathy and more mysterious Weakling. Even though Alexander (the man behind this) is a drummer, the beats are almost sloppy and often raw and simple, as well as hidden pretty deep down in the mix. But it all feels intentional and this album is a real masterpiece. Google for some reviews and you'll find plenty of people who agree - those that don't seem to complain that it isn't loud enough (well crank it up then, stupid) or they just don't appreciate this style of black metal.

There's good use of samples throughout this album, both spoken phrases (I really must find out where the womans voice is from!) and more far-out stuff like opera vocals. This is opressive, bleak and subterranean, yet vast, bombastic and with an ominous momentum.

Black Metal Trance part III: Weakling

While Burzum achieved a lot by simple means, his music can sometimes become too simple. Mood, sound and structure can get you very far, but add complexity to the mix and the music can become truly mindboggling, as well as hold up better to repeat listenings. Among the literally uncountable bands that have been influenced by Burzum, I find Weakling to be the best by far (do click that link, it gives an excellent summary of the bands history). Perhaps Weakling's greatness is because they weren't a clone, and to be honest they were only marginally influenced by the norwegian.

Unfortunately that's all in the past tense, because they split before their only album "Dead As Dreams" was released. But holy shitlord what an album! It's 76 minutes long, but only contains 5 tracks. And that's 5 tracks of relentless fucking metal, no filler 20 minutes of dull thuds. It has tormented, howled vocals and a kaleidoscopic sense of progression that makes other "progressive metal" bands' 7-minute tracks seem like toddler lullabies. I've describled "Dead As Dreams" as a black vortex in the past, and that's pretty much what it is. It's not chaos though, it's extremely well arranged, which makes one wonder how the hell they could rehearse this stuff considering the track lengths.

Very rarely do they get close to any sort of rock groove - instead they steer their despair-drenched black metal juggernaut through mathy rythms and majestic riffs, pounding you into a barbwire-clad trance. There's not a dull moment on here, and even though the production is a bit on the thin side this is an album I keep coming back to. One of my most captivating listening experiences in recent years was listening to this start to finish (as it should be enjoyed) lying perfectly still on a bed, eyes closed. It worked like a sensory deprivation tank, where I completely lost contact with all senses apart from my hearing. Trippy.

Black Metal Trance part II: Burzum

If you're familiar with Burzum you can skip this post as it's mainly directed to people who are new to the genre.

I wasn't really sure if I should bring up Burzum here at all - not because of his unfortunate political ideas, but rather because he must be the most discussed black metal artist ever. A quick googling gives something like 3,4 million hits...

But it's only fair to bring him up, because he pretty much invented the hypnotic black metal genre, and was also very important for making the use of synths accepted in a genre where keyboards are somehow considered homosexual, but wearing tight leather pants and chainmail isn't.

While the production quality of his albums is rather dreadful, it sort of compliments the music. Unfortunately this is not the case with 99% of all other poorly recorded/mixed/mastered black metal records, but this is the rare exception, and as we will see later in this series it's a bit of a common theme for the depressive/hypnotic/epic style of black metal that I'm trying to cover.


My favourite Burzum album is Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, which has no weak tracks and also sets the bar for album progression. The first track is the slowest and most restrained one, but this is where he establishes the mood and the hypnotic, monotonous arrangement style. Over the next two he increases the energy but keeps the ultra dense mood, and then wraps it up with the epic ambient track.


The other one I'd have to recommend is Filosofem. This one isn't as strong as a whole for me, and the progression is somewhat plagued by having the even longer ambient track as the penultimate one rather than just putting it last again. But this is still fucking fantastic, and the first four tracks certainly rival Hvis Lyset Tar Oss.

Burzum is an almost essential startingpoint for this type of music, regardless of wether you like these albums or not. The reason is that you cannot possibly explore black metal without running into references to Burzum, and these two albums in particular. Having heard them will make thousands of record reviews easier to understand, and might get you hooked on the style too.

Black Metal Trance part I: Prologue

Looking at my musical preferences throughout the years, one of many recurring themes is intensely energetic music with a majestic and euphoric, yet introvert and melacholic mood. That may sound like an oxymoron, but imagine being flown out from earth through the solar system. You would likely be in extatic awe of its unfathomable size and majesty, yet at the same time taken aback when realizing your relative insignificance and the fragility of our world. This particular blend of emotions, mindfuckery and aesthetic/philosophical direction has manifested itself in my record collection mainly in the form of goa trance. My first contact with these themes was through another genre though - thrash metal. More specifically, Helloween's Walls of Jericho, which I bought at the age of 8. I think in particular "How Many Tears" managed to tune my neurons to these settings.

For the longest time I turned my back on the lust for metal after having sold off nearly all such records in 1994, when I had fallen in love with electronic music. The need slowly crept up on me and finally caught up properly in 2003, when I started to tentatively point my nose in the metal direction again. It has taken me very long to fully realize, but what I always seek in metal is the majestic hypnotism I can also find in goa trance, only painted with a different sonic palette. I'm not interested in "rocking out", nor do I have the knowledge needed to appreciate the finer details of guitar technique. This combined with an intense distaste for musical cheese quite quickly took me to black metal, which contains a surprising width and has proven to be a hotbed for experimental, far-out metal. In a series of posts I will highlight some of the black metal records that best satiate my lust for awe-inspiring sonic hypnotism.