Cold Therapy, a unique Industrial influenced one-man project from Poland, has returned with a haunting new album called The Darkest Hour. Living up to it's gloomy name, the release provides a captivating album equally inspired by Bach as it does :wumpscut:. Steadily moving forward in a Gothic funeral march, the entire release is an extremely moody, brooding, and atmospheric affair. Delightfully devilish it'll certainly appeal to your gothic tendencies by providing your favorite classical-inspired sounds (horns, strings, choirs, percussion, the whole shebang), almost always playing dark and macabre melodies and drenched in enough craftily programmed reverb that'll give you this constant impression he's somehow playing in a cathedral (creative studio FX skills at it's finest!).
The pacing and transitions between sections really draws heavily on the neo-classical influence, with everything feeling very succinct and clear in it's direction and emotion. A very confident and collected release, with maybe the only drawback is that it plays it a bit safe at times. Maybe not a release to play if you're looking for club bangers, this is certainly a meditative release great for background listening. However, that being said, don't mistake that observation for the album being repetitive or meandering, songs have several different distinct sections containing their own melodies and tonalities, and songs move and shape without having their sections feeling drawn out. I'd just save the overall release has a "soft" nature, despite some of his more gruff elements, such as the industrial-inspired arpeggios and synth leads or the deep and sometimes distorted vocals found throughout the whole release.
Truly a genre-bending release that stands on it's own with originality, but still will feel familiar to those familiar with some of the more atmospheric industrial bands out there. An enjoyable listen from beginning to end that will be found on my own personal playlist for the foreseeable future. Highly recommended to any industrial fans who enjoy more softer and melodic content, or neo-classical fans with an open mind. Dig it!
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