86. 2008 Awards

Album I Wished I Liked More

Darkspace - III

So when I say An album I wish I could Like more, that Is not saying I dislike the album. Not Entirely. These are "intellectual albums" rather than "party albums." Yes, they will not feed your kegger, but they will get you laid by the artsy girl who works at the library. Well maybe not. There are albums which stimulate your intellectual side rather than the basic need to be entertained. These are albums which could be written about extensively in a masters thesis but which you rarely play at home. These are the bands you spend more time talking about than actually listening to; Jangly Art Rock, Ambient Electronic, Free Jazz, Drone, Found Sounds, Progressive Rock. Darkspace narrowly beat out Austrian Ambient alchemist Ferrenz for Top Album I Wished I Liked More. While Ferrenz's meditations on loneliness and noise were a contender, it was the third installment what appears to be a trilogy (I ,II,III) for Darkspace, the space obsessed swiss black metal outfit. This is not just your standard winter obsessed Black Metal, this is Black Metal attempting to explore and recreate the nothingness of space. The nothingness of space? So this is more about Lovecraft than Tolkien. Our pilots for this journey are Wroth, Zhaaral and Zorgh. To be fair, Darkspace's alias are no more absurd than the majority of Norwegian Black Metal members. III has everything you could want. Numbers instead of track names. Minimal artwork. Songs which stretch to nearly 10 minutes. A concept which explores the cold reaches of space! Obscurity! Mystery! Its true that I have only listened to this album once, in parts over the course of a few months, but I love it...Well i Love talking about it and writing blog posts about this band.



Darkspace should not be confused with Darkplace...the best show ever made