Darsombra is right up our alley, and yours too if you dig the more abstract, arty, ambient sides of, say, Thrones, Melvins, Harvey Milk, Earth, and Fantomas. Ecdysis is just a bit scary, and full of super-heavy moments, so it could be taken as some kind of nightmare soundtrack. But there's much beauty and gentleness here too. You'll hear some major-key melodies, surprising in such a context, and a plethora of sampled sounds, from sinister voices to religious testifyin'. Anytime we find a disc where, y'know, one track sounds like 20th century classical meets Melvins and another like the labored, ritualistic breathing of some sort of demonic creature, and it's metal but not really, and kinda pretty too, well, there's only one way to end the review: recommended.
-Aquarius Records
"Darsombra takes the multiple overdubbing of guitar drones to near orchestral extremes. On "Auguries" and "Night's Black Agents," his stacked guitar lines hover and tremble like strings, the complex weaving and reweaving of their opppressive cluster chords more reminiscent of Penderecki or Gorecki than any obvious metal reference points. "Drops of Sorrow" uses the brief starburst sound of overtone harmonics to build a shimemring space you might expect in Steve Reich or Terry Riley. " - WIRE
Darsombra's debut contains enough seismic rumbles to keep Mount St. Helens erupting for years to come. And considering the band's sole driving force, Brian Daniloski, (was a member of) psych-metalloids Meatjack, Darsombra sounds like a more actualized micro-metal experiment than the likes of droney-come-latelies SunnO))) and Growing...what separates Darsombra from the current crop of Earthshakers is the way Daniloski moves the EQ from bass to treble without compromising his vision. Darsombra balances both blacks and whites for the greys drone metal fans need.
-CMJ
Hey!Hope all is well Brian. Heard you on an Aural Innovations show!!! Very cool! Thought of you when my friends band-RARE BLEND- played Orion again recently. We took Mike Potter out to dinner at G&M restaurant; heard they have the best crab cakes in town-they were good! :) When ya coming to Cleveland???
To hear - scratch that - to experience darsombra is to take an astral journey into the depths of an unexplored cave, dark and mysterious, without light as we know it, to float through realms fearful yet fascinating, to be surrounded by blackness. Fusing guitar that drifts by yet scorches, and eerie electronic elements, not to mention disturbing vocals engineered into audio texture, darsombra's music is massively compelling and must be heard. It is the sort of thing you seep into, you experience, you absorb, and which absorbs you. -FishComCollective
crude electro-punk with alternately tottery or throat-ripped vocals and a decent balance between grunting guitars and tittering keys and a constant throb in the background
