Review Summary: If you're looking for a typical Darkspace album, look elsewhere.
Darkspace has been a staple in the black metal scene since the early 2000s. Their brand of cosmic atmospheric black metal took the sound that Paysage d'Hiver made famous, put an extraterrestrial spin on it and made their own fantastic sound. Their first 4 albums are all essential atmospheric/ambient black metal albums, but the last one was released a decade ago. That is until now. Darkspace are BACK and boy have they changed.
Dark Space -II is in no way comparable to their previous works. The black metal is still there, but it is just a tiny piece of the whole pie. This album is 100% about atmosphere. If you want riffs, jam the first 4 albums. Riffs are present but they're more used as background noise. Mainly this album's appeal comes in the creepy sci-fi ambient atmosphere and the pitch black frigidness of industrial music. There's almost a freeing feeling to
Dark Space -II. Like you've been taken from your every day life and put into some kind of black hole in the solar system with no hope of ever getting out. The vocals are also used as more of a background instrument, sounding as if someone is screaming at you from another dimension as you soar further and further into the abyss. Imagine you're in a spaceship that goes rogue and strands you amongst the stars.
Admittedly, this album is going to be a lot for black metal fans to swallow because there's not much of it present here. However that's not to say that
Dark Space -II is devoid of the intensity that you normally get from black metal. This is Darkspace at their most stripped down and minimal. Fans of industrial and drone shouldn't hesitate to give this a listen. Many bands go for the cosmic atmosphere, but none of them pull it off like Darkspace. They are the masters of cosmic music and this album is another great in their classic discography. Even if it is the most different of the bunch.
