The Dark And Bleak
We were recently contacted by Jonathyn Arthurs, a young solo artist from Columbus Ohio, producing music under the name of The Dark And Bleak. After three years of working on the music, the message is still clear – to spread the beauty of music and true spirituality through the heaviest of methods and music genres. We were sent through a link to check out some of the tracks to I figured I’d hit play and see what was going on!
Opening with Never In Peace there’s a sense of darkness created, the rumbling undertones of the track leading us into the hard hitting and powerful track beginning fully, powerful drums abounding whilst heavy guitar lines and roaring vocals take the lead. Dark and ominous from the word go, there’s a real sense of black metal running through the track here, forming a sound which is not only distorted and powerful, but intricate and full of snippets which demonstrate musical understanding. War Of Near Eternity continues this idea further, once again opening with a dark and desolate sounding opening before picking up the pace to reveal the true colours of the track. Powerful and firmly based around the rolling backing track, the sheer power of this track leaves you truly astonished at the sheer power this young man has managed to pack into a track – it’s a hell of an achievement at any age, let along being so young! Once again firmly based around the black metal idea, this is another track which holds a few surprises, one which you can’t simply listen to and take at face value as there’s far too much going on throughout it.
Skipping past a sampler track we get to Falling Nations, another track which works on the darker side of things, only this time somehow morphing into a sound which will get you thinking, make you reflect and try to take it all in. Slow, powerful, distorted yet somehow packing a real sense of melody, the dark undertones of this track reveal a message hidden within the track, the sort of thing which makes you want to look at the world differently, it’s a track which once again holds more than it first seems. You Must Change Your Mind, Roads, Sacred Thought and Your Worst Nightmare all continue the message, each track coming as a little snippet of the inner workings of Jonathyn’s mind, showing his understanding of music and how to create a dark and distorted image of the world through it, yet still providing almost a social commentary on things through his dark and distorted approach to things. I’m Alive however seems to make a slightly different approach to things, this time basing everything around a far more electronic approach to form a sound which is more haunting, more out there and darker than those before it. This combination of different elements once again demonstrates the understanding of music going on here, somehow taking different approaches which shouldn’t work together and making them work.
It’s left then to What If to close the selection on the Facebook page, this time opening with a haunting piano line before revealing a softer track, a track full of melody and harmony, yet still holding that power and force which made the earlier tracks work so well. Building up throughout this track, this is one which stands out purely for being so different to the others, showing that there’s more to this guy than we first see, and showing that this could be a very interesting project if it continues.
I was warned in advance that the quality of these tracks wasn’t great, and I’ll be completely honest and agree that they’re not – but it’s not an issue. Moving forwards, with proper studio time and further balancing of the elements going into the tracks I think there’s some real potential here for this to be something people want to check out, the sort of thing which gets you to think, forces you to listen, and changes your perspective on things.
One to keep an eye on.
To find out more about The Dark And Bleak, check out their Facebook page HERE.
Words: Dave Nicholls
Opening with Never In Peace there’s a sense of darkness created, the rumbling undertones of the track leading us into the hard hitting and powerful track beginning fully, powerful drums abounding whilst heavy guitar lines and roaring vocals take the lead. Dark and ominous from the word go, there’s a real sense of black metal running through the track here, forming a sound which is not only distorted and powerful, but intricate and full of snippets which demonstrate musical understanding. War Of Near Eternity continues this idea further, once again opening with a dark and desolate sounding opening before picking up the pace to reveal the true colours of the track. Powerful and firmly based around the rolling backing track, the sheer power of this track leaves you truly astonished at the sheer power this young man has managed to pack into a track – it’s a hell of an achievement at any age, let along being so young! Once again firmly based around the black metal idea, this is another track which holds a few surprises, one which you can’t simply listen to and take at face value as there’s far too much going on throughout it.
Skipping past a sampler track we get to Falling Nations, another track which works on the darker side of things, only this time somehow morphing into a sound which will get you thinking, make you reflect and try to take it all in. Slow, powerful, distorted yet somehow packing a real sense of melody, the dark undertones of this track reveal a message hidden within the track, the sort of thing which makes you want to look at the world differently, it’s a track which once again holds more than it first seems. You Must Change Your Mind, Roads, Sacred Thought and Your Worst Nightmare all continue the message, each track coming as a little snippet of the inner workings of Jonathyn’s mind, showing his understanding of music and how to create a dark and distorted image of the world through it, yet still providing almost a social commentary on things through his dark and distorted approach to things. I’m Alive however seems to make a slightly different approach to things, this time basing everything around a far more electronic approach to form a sound which is more haunting, more out there and darker than those before it. This combination of different elements once again demonstrates the understanding of music going on here, somehow taking different approaches which shouldn’t work together and making them work.
It’s left then to What If to close the selection on the Facebook page, this time opening with a haunting piano line before revealing a softer track, a track full of melody and harmony, yet still holding that power and force which made the earlier tracks work so well. Building up throughout this track, this is one which stands out purely for being so different to the others, showing that there’s more to this guy than we first see, and showing that this could be a very interesting project if it continues.
I was warned in advance that the quality of these tracks wasn’t great, and I’ll be completely honest and agree that they’re not – but it’s not an issue. Moving forwards, with proper studio time and further balancing of the elements going into the tracks I think there’s some real potential here for this to be something people want to check out, the sort of thing which gets you to think, forces you to listen, and changes your perspective on things.
One to keep an eye on.
To find out more about The Dark And Bleak, check out their Facebook page HERE.
Words: Dave Nicholls