DARSOMBRA
DARSOMBRA “Dumesday Book”
By Dr. Abner Mality
For a chronicle of the Covid pandemic and how it shut everything down, this massive soundscape...big enough for a double album...sounds surprisingly upbeat and chipper. I’m so used to depressing dystopian efforts that something with a little hope to it and even a playful feel at times comes across as a revelation.
For those who don’t know, DARSOMBRA is a long-running avant-garde duo who create hard to define landscapes of sound. The PR sheet calls them “glam-prog-psych-stoner metal”, which pretty much means the same as “expect anything”. Their works are often accompanied by a very involved psychedelic light show. There’s some of the guitar drone of SUNN 0))), analog synth workouts reminiscent of the 70’s, a lot of krautrock and some mopey low key guitar noodling similar to EARTH. A lot of range here and don’t expect anything like typical metal songs.
The first two tracks, “Shelter In Place” and “Call The Doctors”, made the biggest impression on me. The former has a huge, massive sound, as if something of great import is happening, while the latter is an extended krautrock jam with lots of guitar/synth duels. “Azimuth” is so long that I could start it, fix lunch, walk around the block to work it off and come back in time to catch the end. Too long for me, but the climax is absolutely huge. Some tracks like “Plague Times” and “Everything Is Canceled” are more amorphous, almost improvised and depressing. I much prefer the more upbeat likes of “A New Dell” and “Gibbet Lore”, which rely on a lot of repetition and layering. Despite the gruesome title, the latter song is breezy, fun and almost joyful.
Kind of a mixed bag here, but if you like to lose yourself in walls of sound and don’t need traditional metal structures to do so, DARSOMBRA is an interesting choice.