Metal Maniacs #2

Many people don't see it until after I point it out to them, and the man behind this one-man ambient/noise project - Meatjack guitarist Brian Daniloski - may take the scientific high road and tell you that the cover depicts "the molting of the cuticula in arthropods" (edysis' actual definition) but all I see is a vagina. Whether that means that I'm an idiot or just obsessed with a certain something is up for debate amongst the brightest psychoanalytic minds money can rent, but it's also indicative of how one can approach the darsombra experience. If you listen literally, you'll hear what may seem like a bunch of random noises slung together and run through a pedal board the size of which Paul Bunyan would be proud. On the surface it would seem that if you live for the bowel-rumbling soul-stripping mindfuck of Khanate, Sunn0))) and/or Earth, that darsombra would find a happy home on your iPod. Dig a little deeper and you might be surprised at what you stumble across (female anatomy notwithstanding). There are layers upon layers of artificial and organic texture here - the many faces of a strangled guitar knock noggins with synthesized drones straight from a Kubrick movie, left field sitar melodies, slow march drum machinery and samples from people who should be staring down the barrel of a thousand Rorschach test ("Drag the Carcass"). Granted, some of the more ambient and sparse moments can get boring, but in contrast to much of the decaying doom that's so popular these days, darsombra isn't so much about rib-shaking bass and enough low-end to cause incontinence in marathon runners. It's about the various moods one man can create with sonic strata giving the listeners the chance to explore the expanse and come up with his/her own conclusions (that may or may not include vagina) without unmercifully reverberating the pit of one's gut.

Kevin Stewart-Panko