Various Artists
Colorado Dark Arts Festival
~reviewed by Mick Mercer

Well it's a bright thing and no mistake with a double CD celebrating the event from May of last year, with two sides, Onyx and Rock Island, whatever that means, and a bulging bag of mixed styles. You can work out from the track listing whether this is for you, because I am restricting to myself to tracks which I found interesting.

Soren caught me with their Voltaire-like precocious ballad, Solitary Sinners do good guitar techno in a Utah Saints vein, Space Ape Experiment use samples beautifully to create a funny, skimpy dance track, Emergen do great things with pounding ebm and Throe Vein are inventive rock-dominated Industrial.

Machinegun Symphony were a nice, almost a stiff version of The Last Dance with a nice hard edge to it, and Caustic Soul are classy, showing a chattering epic, of sorts, Project 12:01 have a saucy minx on vocals and wield great electronic depth charges, and Dark Orchid are like a damp, dank version of All About Eve crossed with Hole and an early 70's drum sound.

The only thing which got me was it doesn't particularly strike me as very dark.

INDIGO REACTION - COMPROMISE
SOREN - SHE DANCES WITH FIRE
SOLITARY SINNERS - FEAR
THE RED CHURCH - DEATH MARCH
SPACE APE EXPERIMENT - TRIANGLES
EROTIC - FOREVER
EMERGENCE - SCARRED
DEVIANT - ANGELS DISAPPEAR
THROE VEIN - NO MORE
TENEBRIOUS - FOLLOW
PORCELAIN DOLLS - FIEND
MACHINEGUN SYMPHONY - VERDICT
THE SIREN PROJECT - JUSTIFY
CAUSTIC SOUL - FORGIVE
THE FRAIL - RISE
DARK ORCHID - THESE DAYS
RAZOR SHARP RIBBONS - YOU BROUGHT ME PAIN
PROJECT 12:01 - JUST AS SOUND

http://www.coloradodarkarts.org

http://www.grimworks.com - design

http://www.forbiddensongs.com

http://www.tenebrious.com

http://www.gestaltrecords.com

3/16/04