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Band: Godwin Point
Album title: II
Release date: 17 June 2022
Label: Dark Vinyl Records
Genre: Dark Ambient, Post-Industrial, Darkwave, Dark Electro
Tracklist:
01. Obscurantisme
02. Mass Hysteria
03. Drink The Black Milk
04. God's Army
05. Limbes
06. Your Sect
07. Love Of God / Hate Of Man
08. City Evening Blues
The legacy of the cult Swedish label Cold Meat Industry, which was active from 1987 until 2013, continues. The spirit of this once very important and one of the most influential labels of dark underground music, which with its roster of acts showed to the dark music world that many things are possible, lives on, and the French project Godwin Point encapsulates it in all of its glory. Nothing strange because Godwin Point is a side project of David Saber, the man behind the martial dark ambient cult Dawn + Dusk Entwined, who was a part of the CMI roster back then. Godwin Point's offering is more accessible than anything David did before. Actually, it is "music" with vocals and occasional rhythms, not just puristic dark ambient stuff.
As the title suggests, this is the second album by Godwin Point. The first album, released in June 2021, conceptually dealt with the madness of the political leaders. This one focuses on the criticism of the behaviour and everlasting influence of the Catholic church on our society. The music is, if compared to the debut album, more intense, with more vocal parts, it's heavily atmospheric, sick, sometimes perverse, brutally pounding and dark, with no light, only shadows. I love the fact there are a lot of dynamics, and the songs are varied, to a certain point experimental, cinematic and haunting. Godwin Point is refreshing stuff in the dark ambient scene of today since its vast majority became polluted with generic soundscapes sounding almost all the same, with just a few exceptions.
There are, of course, many dark ambient traces, and I guess that this music will find its listeners mainly within the fans of this specific genre, but the presence of post-industrial, darkwave and dark electro elements makes it unique and - to a certain point - flamboyant. I guess David couldn't escape using some martial industrial elements here and there, which makes the album even stronger, heavier and rhythmically hypnotic. If you ever listened to the Swedish martial industrial project Sophia, or if you can imagine how the gloomiest elements of Laibach mixed with the obscure ambient of Raison d'être could sound, then you're pretty close to this music, but yet here's more.
The tracks are moderate, not too long, and you can easily fall in love with this sonic world. Dark yet intense drones, pounding industrial bombast, different types of vocals and many ghastly electronic elements that paint up a deviant hallucinogenic cavernous soundscape might be appropriate for some psychedelic horror movie ("Drink The Black Milk"). The rhythmical alluring track "Mass Hysteria" can easily get played at any obscure/fetish dark party. The whole thing is very cinematic, sometimes just like if Atrium Carceri, Deutsch Nepal and the forgotten Swiss project Chiva are having a sonic trip together, the devilish "God's Army" is one of the examples.
The eight tracks on this album are all very dense, to a certain point multi-dimensional, although sometimes minimalistic. I like how deep are bass lines, going down below into unreachable depths. Listen to the ultra dark "Limbes" or the sharp echoing cosmic martial beats of "Your Sect", and just let your mind get hypnotized by the repetitive rhythms of "Love Of God - Hate Of Man". In the end, the listener is invited to drink from the chalice of emerald darkness when "Evening City Blues" clarifies the skies of dark manipulation with its spectral soft drones and stark piano touches.
"Blindness of certainties leads the naive to its chains"... is just one sentence taken from the lyrics, and in my opinion, there's much more than just the criticism of the Catholic church. It might concern the entire society. Nevertheless, Godwin Point offers a dark adventure into the most hideous and obscure places the sound has ever reached. It's bleak but with a significant message. It can be captivating and listenable if you are not afraid to enter the deepest darkness. Godwin Point's compositions might be timeless but if this album has been released 20 or 30 years ago it would be for sure considered as a cult.
The review was written by Tomaz
Rating: 8/10
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