INSECT ARK

INSECT ARK’S DARK AMBIENT TURN – FUTURE FOSSILS: The journey of Dana Schechter with Insect Ark has been defined by change and evolution. It’s no surprise that Schechter’s vision is one defined by an openness to experimentation. This is a work of cinematic scope, one that draws sonic images through the chameleonic nature of the synthesizer.

When one of the most reflective artists of our time releases a new EP called Future Fossils that calls for two things: Attention and reflection. These songs or rather soundscapes are clearly a return to the work one was used to by Insect Ark from before their last record The Vanishing from 2020 and these songs definitely show the more experimental side of Dana’s work again.

Future Fossils is a dark, and oftentimes challenging listen. It's focused more on being in the moment, appreciating the dark ambient groundswell and letting listeners be enamored with the brooding darkness that has come to define so much of Insect Ark's music.

It rumbles, scratches and echoes and the promotional magazine's quote "a record that isn't intent on going anywhere fast" describes it all quite well. It is so total and compact pitch black that it feels as if even the sun that is actually shining in through the window at the time of writing is about to be scared away. And of course I love it.

INSECT ARKs Album „The Vanishing" besteht aus sechs Sound-Monolithen, die Düsternis, Epik, aber auch Hoffnung versprühen. Ein besonderes Alleinstellungsmerkmal im instrumentalen Doom des Duos sind vor allen Dingen die Lapsteel-Gitarrenklänge von Bandgründerin Dana Schechter.

The great highlight of Insect Ark's present moment is this beast of a record. The Vanishing can be roughly described as a sort of more psychedelic instrumental Neurosis, a comparison which is not made lightly.

Insect Ark play the kind of metal that you'd see performed at a museum. This electric guitar-less duo consists of frequent M. Gira collaborator Dana Schechter on bass, lap steel and synths, with former SubRosa drummer Andy Patterson on drums. That pedigree should help clue you in as to what you're in for with The Vanishing: some-thing very tasteful, very heavy and very bleak.

Schechter's return now with The Vanishing finds Insect Ark at its most potent. With drummer Andy Patterson (ex-SubRosa) joining on this venture, the duo performs a sickening descent to a hallucinogenic abyss… desolate, crafting obscure desert-like sceneries with sparse lead work, or horrifying moments of ambient dread that slithers and moves in circular motifs. "The Vanishing" drives this message straight to the heart, with its fantastic bends that stretch reality itself.

The Vanishing is doom-trodden and angular and creepy and mystical in all the right ways. I’m calling it “horror” metal not because it would work well as a horror movie soundtrack (it just might), but because it really instills that anxious discomfort which, counterintuitively, translates into an enjoyable but tense listen.

At some point Insect Ark will hit the redline for sonic unsettling and brilliance in experimentation. Captured by engineer Colin Marston (Dysrhythmia, Krallice), The Vanishing’s greatest strength is the way they manage to eschew doom’s eerie or any kind of post-metal brain-numbing formulas by injecting a calculated and defiant Neurosis type of aggression and unrelenting intensity, with a welcome tinge of melody on their dynamic brutal soundscape.