June 28th, 2011
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Back in 2005, Jesse introduced our base here at DD to the band Slumber, which got high marks for depressive leads and a got nailed for its overly theatrical keyboards. A lot of things have happened since then. First the sophomore record was announced, followed by a few great samples, only to come out with an even newer update that they were disbanding.
Enter Atoma
Atoma started as an underground organisation. A council of 26, financing and sending out its members to join several major riots happening worldwide during 2005-2008. As the organisation was facing severe losses due to its violent nature, it was put “on hold” April 2009. At that time, Atoma was also becoming a musical faction as one of its members, Ehsan K (ex Slumber), began directing a group of dedicated musicians that now bears the name of ATOMA.
Personally, I found this rhetoric arrogant, distasteful, and naive. The music itself seems way overproduced and too influenced by demagoguery. I’ve never heard of a riff being powerful enough to knock off heads of state.
On the other hand, I recognize the leap of faith and bravery it took to initiate an entirely new project while seemingly abandoning another — especially when the prior had garnered well deserved praise and a cult following. Slumber was the more musically interesting and intellectually mature project, abandoned for Atoma, the mundane soundtrack for the naive teenager coming to the realization the world is a fucked up place.
Whether we like it or not, Slumber is gone and “this is [Atoma's] playground at the end of the world”
June 17th, 2011
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So todays prescription comes in the form of rock/metal band lead by the infamous Portuguese songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Daniel Cardoso. This guy’s repertoire is to long to list here.
Formerly known as SinDRomE, HeadControlSystem was renamed when Garm of Ulver joined the fold as a full-time lyricist and singer of the band.
The lyrics on Murder Nature were influenced by Kris’s fascination with automatic writing, in a stream of conscious style
Dark rock vibe with good groove people. This is good shit.
June 13th, 2011
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I’ve loved this album since its released date in 2003. This is as eccentric as it gets man. Just take a quick peak at the fantastical lyrics coupled with the schizophrenic riffs and backing atmospheric elements – it should convince you of nothing other.
It’s super notable how the last two records flow so well. The tracks can be radically different from each other yet transition so goddamned well. This is true about the songwriting and arrangements as well.
This is the kind of songwriting I’m always looking for: unusual, intelligent without being maladaptive. It’s guitar-based songwriting with tastefully textured backing tracks. Love the dual use (and a half) of vocal techniques that still brings duality in non-traditional clean/death terms. Sophistry in death metal.
I had to post Deus Diabolus Inversus in order to spike interest. It is Greece’s battle cry and I am summoning you to go check the entire record out. Produced by Fredrik Nordstrom folks.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I was talking to Sakis Tolis a couple of months ago, and HAD to ask if there was hope for any new output. He told me that they’d written a handful of new songs and a studio would be booked soon!! Grand news.
Deus Diabolus Inversus (Download)
Horrified (Artist)
Purchase as CD
September 15th, 2010
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Lately I’ve been wondering what it would take to activate dark dose again. The need for a useful resource, guiding you through the blinding and confusing stream of music remains. The problem lies in the copious amount of time consumed writing here, for little to no “benefit.”
Brainstorming is underway… if and when dark dose returns, it’ll likely be a new format of one kind or another. One which is actually sustainable.
Not that many people frequent this neglected corner of the internet anymore, but I’d love to hear any ideas you have.
Last but not least — I’ve ditched the monthly archive (dating back to 2005!) and replaced it with an infinite scroll back in time. Enjoy.
September 29th, 2009
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As I struggled to keep this site going in the recent past, today’s email from Krishna gave me enough strength to muster up a new post at midnight. Although this isn’t the most original material in the world, this song caught my attention mainly because of the clean vocals.
It certainly reminded me of The Entity whose melancholy championed the feeling back when we discovered them in like 2003ish. Add a little Opeth style riffing and some extremely Finnish death metal vocals and we have today’s post. I beg your pardon for the spelling out the recipe, but I cannot ignore these references. Postworthy, but please change the growls!
September 10th, 2008
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Granted I’ve never been a huge Rotting Christ fan, but I’ve had a weak spot for some extreme greek music for some time now. Theogonia has still not sold me 100% either, but there are undeniably songs that really impressed me in this 2007 release.
Sakis delivered some hooks that forced me to keep replaying the first cople of tracks obsessively. ‘Keravnos Kivernitos’ really appeals to me for the extended tension building lasting 1 minute 40 seconds and a subsequent transition to relief of melodic ecstasy and its wise drum section.
Thunderous uprising, thunderous uprising,
Oh, you sweet love in despair…
Lighting rising, lighting uprising,
Unmask your face of sorrow and care
Sense the ancient disfear
So in summary, badass choice of guitar effects, tight riffing, and the soundtrack moments of spoken Greek and chants having me talking up the first couple of songs. Granted my attention span fades as the album marches on, but Rotting Christ managed to perk these ears and sparked interest in future albums.
LOGOS! AEMA! NOEMA!
Keravnos Kivernitos(Download)
Rotting Christ (Artist)
Purchase CD
September 9th, 2008
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I’ve always been extremely skeptical about any band that tried to live up to the melodic dreampop/shoegaze title even if they weren’t gunning for the number 1 spot. Slowdive had that approach mastered and I’ve considered them to be in a league of their own ever since I started deeply submerging into this sound.
There has always been more to describing this style than “highly delayed and reverbed melody with hauntingly soaring vocals & ethereal guitars”. That would be too formulaic of an explanation for a style that evokes such an all-encompassing feeling, from emotional to the physical.
Jesse turned me onto The Daysleepers a couple weeks back and pointed out that Goswell, Guthrie, and Halstead had given it their seal of approval. That in of itself for reasons stated above sparked my interest. After spinning it once, I was convinced they had chosen a perfect album title.
The Daysleepers Debut EP won the band many fans around the world (selling out the first pressing), and praise from shoegaze legends such as Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins), Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead of Slowdive. It also hit ..1 for several weeks on the Tonevendor (Renowned Shoegaze Distributor) top 20 record sales list.
‘Mixing the soundscapes of Slowdive and the overall mission championed by The Cure’ is a fair comparison as it isn’t the most original undertaking, but very modern & complex-as-hell torchbearers in the dreamy music shoegaze arena. Bel Canto‘s vocal approach can be seen here and there in these ears.
After exploring Daysleepers, newcomers are once again urged to revisit some Slowdive exploration to tap into the “magical songs” Jesse referenced in July of 2005 — and to get some background on where all this originated from.
Tiger in the Sea (Download)
The Daysleepers (Artist)
Purchase CD
September 5th, 2007
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The sun shines high above, the sounds of laughter.
The birds swoop down upon, the crosses of old grey churches.
We say that we’re in love, while secretly wishing for rain.
Sipping coke and playing games.
September’s here again… September’s here again.
We’re not dead, life just beckons. More to come shortly.
July 1st, 2007
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Before I write a few words about the song I’m prescribing for a healthy slab of darkness today, I want to acknowledge the fact that darkdose.com has survived for 2 years. That’s not to say we haven’t had to be resuscitated a few times, but that’s pretty damn good. Since June 2005, we’ve sporadically thrown out our best discoveries of dark music and hopefully turned a few of you onto a song, album or artist you love. We’ll try to keep it up. I wanted to also mention the launching of dark dose tv. While it’s in an embryonic state as of now, I have plans to expand it with many more videos and even original and live content. Unlike most other lifeless online video streams, any author of dark dose can actually broadcast live, share videos with you live, and so forth. The possibilities are exciting. I’ll write more on this later once we develop it a bit more. You can find a link to dark dose tv from the menu on our homepage. Leave it on in a window while you browse!
Back in August 2005, I wrote that I wasn’t a huge fan of Britain’s Antimatter, but that I found a number of songs I enjoyed off of their “Planetary Confinement” album. I was surprised to learn back then that all the songs I liked were written by Mick Moss, not Duncan Patterson (considering I revere Anathema‘s early material). So I was excited when I heard Moss would be writing all the material on the latest Antimatter, “Leaving Eden.”
I was not disappointed. All of the songs are basically like my favorites off of “Planetary,” — which means exceptionally well structured melodic rock songs, brooding in their own misery. I’m glad to see the highly electronic elements of previous albums thrown out the window for a simple rock approach. Moss’ excellent Eddie Vedder-esque vocals melt right into David Gilmore influenced guitar leads screeching with beautiful melancholy.
While there’s nothing particularly new or innovative being presented here, the material is extremely strong. I’ll admit I sometimes find this album (and Antimatter in general) slightly contrived due to some of the subject matter. It can be a bit grandiose — ‘woe is me.’ Despite this, I usually find it emotionally convincing and react with goose bumps to moments such as the guitar lead which begins at 4:23 in “Leaving Eden” and works it’s magic until the end of the song.
June 16th, 2007
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One of the greatest features of this site is that when one contributor (read: me) goes MIA, the other guys are there to pick up the slack. I haven’t shared anything for several months now, but I’m here to make it up to you by introducing you to your new favorite artist. In the past 2 years, Ulrich Schnauss has fast moved up my list of all-time favorites and clearly into the top 5. He is probably the only artist who I can listen to and be utterly blown away, every single time, regardless of my mood or how many times I’ve heard his record that given month/day/hour. When you’re as big a music fanatic as most of us here are, that really says a lot.
Ulrich Schnauss is truly one of a kind. My friend Andy, who first put me in the know, described his music as “the electronic continuation of Slowdive,” which I think is a fairly accurate assessment. There aren’t many artists I put in the same sentence as Slowdive, but Ulrich Schnauss is absolutely one of them. His music ebbs and flows, building grandiose walls of sounds, with eerily beautiful textures and gorgeous, memorable melodies like only the best shoegaze bands manage. What makes Ulrich Schnauss so special though, is that he uses mainly synthetic sounds and inserts downtempo electronica beats as a pulse under the aforementioned wash of sound. By using electronics, he is literally able to layer over a hundred tracks for any given song, which results in an incredibly deep sound. The closest artist I can compare him to is probably Boards of Canada, but that link doesn’t fully do him justice; he’s in a league of his own.
I had written more attempting to describe what he does, but I really feel I should let the music speak for itself. I’ve actually tried to post him here before, but simply couldn’t write a piece that did him justice. If you’ve read my other posts here, you know what aspects of music really touch me, and Ulrich Schnauss possesses all of them tenfold.
I’ve decided to share two songs from his upcoming album, “Goodbye.” The first song, the title track, is to give a decent representation of his sound. The song is a bit more up-tempo than many of his other works, but the mood and ambience is most definitely there. The second track, entitled “Shine,” is something of a departure for Ulrich Schnauss. While his music is primarily instrumental, with effects-laden female vocals used more for effect than anything, “Shine” features prominent male vocals and is really the first true “song” in the traditional sense that he’s ever done. It’s a new direction, but certainly a good one.
I’m really putting myself out there with such a glowing endorsement, but I don’t see how someone could listen to Ulrich Schnauss and not enjoy it. …And the best part is that there are many more songs where these came from, all equally as stunning.
Goodbye (Download)
Shine (Download)
Ulrich Schnauss (Artist)
Purchase CD
