Entry 980 - Darkspace - II

Style: Cosmic black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: The absence of all light, the depths of space and the cold nothingness that resides there

Thoughts: The depth of space is so vast and so open that I don't think that me as a singular person can fully comprehend how vast and how empty it is. The fact that there is on average 5.9 atoms per cubic meter in space just boggles my mind. For reference there is approximately 10x10^145 atoms per cubic meter on earth. That is a difference so large that even with the numbers staring me in the face I can't even begin to fathom it.

Space is so empty we call it a vacuum, a place where essentially nothing exists. It is the very definition of isolated, cold, and unforgiving. Any living thing acclimated to this planet would instantly die from a myriad of ailments in the depths of space. It is intolerant of all life, and it will consume all that enter into it... and it is everywhere. We living here on this blue/green little ball are so insignificant and meaningless that we can't even grasp it on our own. We are nothing, we will return to nothing, everything is meaningless. 

This is the message that Darkspace channel on their second album. The deep, abyssal, uncompromising truth that is the dark of space. These songs are long, difficult to dissect, and most of all inaccessible. The three songs that are on here span just over an hour in length, and in that hour we are taken on a journey that will ultimately result in an existential crisis.

The music is meant to destroy sanity, it is meant to break down our pre-conceived notions of what we consider "good" or "evil." The only truth is nothingness, the great void, everything else is temporary. Everything else is a fools folly. 

The music is as brutal as the message it portrays. Unlike the first album, this one thrives in different tempos and levels of ambience. The ferocious violence of a supernova is captured just as well as the utter emptiness of deep space. Dark 2.8 in particular is one of the best representations of the bands sound ranging between near nothing coming through my speakers to a wall of sound so thick it's hard to pick out the individual instruments without close inspection.

Darkspace are a rare band. They have taken the darkness of space and created an instantly recognizable sound with it. Darkspace II is my favorite from the band, it is where they took the promise of the first album and added in the dynamics that it so desperately needed. Essential black metal.