DARKVOLT

EN

Antwerp's Darkvolt has finished its first album and that debut goes by the name "The Time Device". An album that will also be available on CD immediately and not only digitally. An evolution that we at Dark Entries applaud because music is not a fleeting (disposable) product for us. Electro, that's what Darkvolt stands for, electro that scrapes and cracks, finds its own way and enjoys itself like a dying factory worker among the pumping machinery.

I have the feeling that there is a good bit of the Canadian old school industrial of the 90s in the genes of inspirer Frederik Strobbe, but also that a European, let's say Belgian bands like The Klinik are also an inspiration, is proven by the recently released cover of The Klinik classic "Black Leather". You could already get acquainted with a couple of songs from this debut album and I am mainly talking about “Tools Of Destruction”, which sounds like an apocalyptic dark electro track and “Precious Dangerous” that sings about love against a background of industrial decay.

The very first song “Electric Angel” that was released at the end of last year is also present, albeit in a special album version. But in addition, there is a lot of new material and those new songs fit perfectly within the musical color palette of Darkvolt. Electro industrial, over which Mr. Strobbe scatters his rather slow and dragging vocals, as if it were a lament and sometimes a torment.

“Voltage Control” is a free translation of 80s electro with a distant The Prodigy echo that beckons to the dance floor. “The Magic Is Gone” is a NIN wink from the Darkvolt universe. There is also something like the calm before the storm in “Storm” from which an indefinable threat emanates. This “The Time Device” proves that the still young Darkvolt has found its own deviant electro language and thus continues the Belgian tradition that originated in the 80s, without however putting on blinders - or rather earmuffs.

“Interlude” is an instrumental contemplation in a dark industrial landscape. In “For Better Or For Worse” Frederik Strobbe seems to be scraping a rap from his throat in a desolate ghetto, while “Killswitch” lets premature techno duel with ebm in a kind of endzeit discotheque where Art the clown (do you know the Terrifier films?) dances his clothes off. “The Device” even allows for a rapturous ambient atmosphere and a bit of mystery. Apparent peace, nothing is what it seems. Electro industrial from the monastery, as it were. With the instrumental “The Time” this varied and yet coherent debut closes the door. Time has the future because with a little imagination this fits perfectly with a (retro) sci-fi series, as if Frederik - Buck Rogers - Strobbe, is carried into another time portal by a sexy female android. Where everything just starts again with the opener "Forever". The circle is complete.

Kurt INGELS
30/11/2024

---

NL

De Nederlandstalige versie van deze review kan u HIER lezen bij onze collega's van Dark Entries Magazine!

Kurt INGELS
30/11/2024

---