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REVIEWS

Tales and Talks

Reflections Of Darkness

"We start right away with ‘Schmerztanz’ turning out to be one of Dark Territory’s more danceable tunes. Starting with just a repetitive synth riff, a powerful beat soon kicks in and makes the legs want to move. With the incorporation of spectral female choir the track cultivates an incredible atmosphere, densifying with the addition of violin, but ‘Schmerztanz’ really gains momentum when the rhythmic percussions come in, closely followed by John’s vocals, building up an intense hypnotic undertow with the improvised vocal line escalating to ecstasy. (...)

After this appetizer it’s hard to wait until the full album comes out next year, but health always comes first. Both the regular tracks and the remixes are quality work and there’s something for both the dreamers ‘Tora Firome’ and for the dance maniacs ‘Schmerztanz’. If you want to get a physical copy hurry up as it’s only limited amount available, otherwise the EP is also available via ITunes. (9/10)"

[Part of the review by Sebastian Huhn]

Gothtronic

After the release of the debut album Libera Me in 2005 the electro duo from The Netherlands now return with a new MCD named Schmerztanz which again features their trademark sound that inhibits elements of electro, goth and World Music.

The disc contains four songs, of which the title track is the most danceable club compatible track. Pounding electrohouse beats and ethereal male vocals are combined with nice rhythms and melodies in this one. Additionally there are three more interesting tracks, with ‘Tora Firome’ which has been reworked into a chilled out ambient world beat track by Sensory Gate, ‘Die Geschichte einer Blume’ which features dark ambient layers with the voice of Sara Noxx and a remix of the track ‘Vrijdag’ from Libera Me made by Tonikom. Schmerztanz contains four excellent tracks that make one wonder when the next Dark Territory album will be done. (8/10).

Genre: ambient (ambient / soundscapes / ritual / drones)

[Review by Teknoir, November 6th 2008]

Reflections Of Darkness

"The first thing you need to have is a little bit time. This music doesn't unfold its true beauty after the first listen. This was at least the case with me, but if you let the music some time to grow on you, you'll love it and drift into another world with such tracks like 'Tora Firome' or 'Ankesuei' for example.

I'd also like to mention John's voice which is really remarkable especially I love his performance on 'Ankesuei' where he almost sounds like an opera singer to me. Well...to cut it short this is a really beautiful album, worth to discover and a new album is about to be released in December and I’m really curious about it. (9/10)"

[Part of the review by Sebastian Huhn]

The D-Side

'Libera Me’ è l’album dei Dark Territory, duo olandese dalla storia un’pò diversa alle spalle da queste mistiche note proposte (fabbricanti di musica techno-house con il progetto Lemonsoul, che li ha visti collaborare anche con Felix Da Housecat, Carl Craig.. scelgono di seguire l’istinto più oscuro debuttando - o ‘liberandosi’- come Dark Territory, apprezzando da sempre anche tali sonorità).

Si percepisce a pieno l‘atmosfera intrapresa da Jamez e John in questi dodici brani: visioni storiche, su cui si può spaziare tra templi pagani, strutture industriali, angoli medievali, voce pulita vicina allo stile gregoriano..ma senza dimenticare quell’electro che rimane nel sangue, anche d’un narratore ancestrale. (...)

La direzione intrapresa è quella giusta, e pare vada molto di moda visti gli ultimi prodotti europei che mescolano electro e sacralità; si sente passione, ed un vario background musicale. Piena sufficienza al duo olandese, speriamo che il prossimo lavoro sia ancora meglio.

[part of the review by Joker]

Medienkonverter

"...the songs have a potential soundtrack quality, for they conjure up fitting images in your mind. I especially want to mention "DarkFlower", for its sentimental beauty, its ceremonial spirit and its wonderful warm vocals. You can find a translation in the booklet. Also I want to point out "Creator I", as being the absolute opposite to 'DarkFlower': club orientated, dynamic with angry English lyrics. My personal highlight of the album is "Trista Me", a song that had me under its spell immediately. The final song, "Creator II", that opposed to the first version is very quiet and has choral accompaniment, resonates the words "Will it ever leave...", words that left me quite startled.

Overall "Libera Me" is a very beautiful and recommendable album with an open ending. Will it mean that more is to come? I do hope so. Great debut! (9/10)"

[part of the review by Sandra, translated from German]

Obliveon Metal & Gothic Magazin

"(...) Die wahre Stärke der beiden Holländer liegt dabei vor allem bei getragenen und sakralen Stimmungen, man höre nur einmal Songs wie "Dark Flower“, "Tora Firome“, "Ankesuei“ oder "Kalandare“, wo die im Info des Labels gezogenen Vergleiche zu Dead Can Dance ihre wohlverdiente Daseinsberechtigung erfahren und sich hinter den Frühwerken Lisa Gerards und Brendan Perrys nicht zu verstecken brauchen. Doch auch tanzbare Nummern, exemplarisch sei hier nur "Creator I“ erwähnt, wissen mitzureissen und überzeugen mit knallharten Beats und eingängigen Melodiebögen, während eine von prägenden Tribals geprägte Nummer wie "Vrijdag“ für zusätzliche Spannungsmomente auf "Libera Me“ sorgt.

"Libera Me“ ist ein schönes und melancholisch getragenes Album, das zu immer wieder neuen Entdeckungsreisen einlädt und auch nach intensivem Hörgenuss immer wieder neue Überraschungen für den aufmerksamen Hörer bereit hält. Ein Album, mit langer Halbwertszeit. (8/10)"

[part of the review by Michael Kuhlen]

Amboss Musik Magazin

"...Funny how they succeed in presenting Dead Can Dance next to Skinny Puppy. Dark, sensational. impelling and inventive, is the Netherlands the modern-time-Belgium? The voodoo drums in 'Vrijdag', combined with warm vocals of which the lyrical style variations resemble Crawleys Incantations, call forth very different comparisons. Very interesting release."

[part of the review by Andreas, translated from German]

Chain D.L.K.

"Dark Territory, track after track explores with great experience the darkwave sound. In this album you can hear ghosts of Dead Can Dance, Ontario Blue and O quam Tristis, but not only that: cold electro of the likes of the Die Form, E.B.M. close to Front line Assembly, etc. If you don't count tracks 2 and 5, which I haven't found that great, this is a masterwork!!!"

[part of the review by Sir Logla]

Dark Heart Magazin

"...Je länger man in das Album hineinhört wird man in eine fremde Welt gezogen voller Mystizismus - und man gelangt ins Dark Territory. Anspieltips: Dark Flower, Trista Me. Fazit: Geniales Album für ruhige Stunden! Geheimtip!"

[part of the review from Dark Heart Magazin]

Electrowahn.de

Dark Territory aus Holland besteht aus den beiden Musikern und Produzenten John und Jamez. Mit ihrem Release "Libera Me" liefern sie ihr Debut ab. Darin vereinen sie mystische und schwermütigen Melodien mit einer düsteren Atmosphäre, wobei auch gesanglich unterschiedliche Sprachen eingesetzt werden.

Das Album beginnt mit „Ptolomea“ sehr ruhig und mystisch, bevor bei „Deliver me“ die Grundstimmung zwar erhalten bleibt, aber die BPM-Zahl etwas ansteigt. „Darkflower“ ist wiederum sehr melancholisch gehalten, wobei der recht zarte Gesang ziemlich beruhigend wirkt. Der erste Song, der ein wenig tanzbarer daherkommt, ist „Creator I“. Im Gegensatz zu den bisher gehörten Stücken, durchziehen fette Beats den Song und auch der Gesang kommt hier ein wenig aggressiver daher, was dem Song bzw. dem Album sicher sehr gut tut. Alle weiteren Songs fallen wieder der düsteren Atmosphäre zum Opfer und die zu ruhigen Vocals klingen wie ein Klagegesang.

Bei „Libera me“ dominieren die gefühlvollen, ruhigen, düsteren und mystischen Elemente. Für den Einsatz in den Clubs ist dieses Album nicht unbedingt geeignet, dafür aber als Entspannung nach einer durchtanzten Nacht.

[review by Demonkiss, December 2005]

Electr-on.pl

"Godny polecenia debiut, choc~ ostatecznie cie~z~ko polecic~ go jedno-gatunkowej publice, muzyka-pl~yta dla wszystkich, którzy maja~ troche~ cierpliwos~ci do odsl~uchów ambitniej pocza~tkuja~cych projektów. (8/10)"

[part of the review by Fiolek, August 2005]

Fiend Magazine

This album is difficult to compare to anything else. Its atmospheric ambient sounds are quite beautiful and it almost sounds like an art house film soundtrack, but one of the really cool ones where you'd prefer to buy the soundtrack in preference of seeing the film.
The opening track "Ptolomea" sets the tone nicely with its innocent organ sounds and deep background with a heart beat accompaniment. "Dark Flower" conjures up of wandering through the catacombes of some ancient European Cathederal. The use of unconvential instruments is quite interesting and tasteful, such as the dulcimer in "Tora Firome" and tribal drums in "Vrijdag". The Dance beats used in "Creator 1" and to a lesser extent in "Kalandare" feel a little out of place; still they aren't bad. If anything they seem to distract a little from the beauty of the rest of the CD. (4/5)

[Fiend Magazine, August/September 2005]

Industrogothi.com

Dark Territory sind für mich sowas wie eine logische Weiterentwicklung von Dead Can Dance, gemischt mit den Sounds von Delerium und Philipp Glass (Koyaanisqatsi). Die absolut geniale Stimme des Sängers setzt dabei immer wieder Akzente in englischer, lateinischer und anderen Sprachen. Teilweise auch in einer Fantasysprache, glaub ich. Hört euch einfach mal Songs wie Trista me, DarkFlower oder Ptolomea (eine richtige Hymne an Phillip Glass) an, ihr werdet begeistert sein! Absoluter Pflichtkauf und ich hoffe, die Band mal live zu sehen! (5/5)

[review by DJ Industrogothi]

Der Lachende Prophet

"... conclusion: If I wouldn't know better, I'd say two complete different bands are sharing one album: One band that makes acoustic music full of emotion, music to dream to, that makes you forget everything, music for the soul. And then another band that makes cool electronic club tracks.
Personally I think the mystical tracks are more successful. These are songs that can compete with Dead Can Dance and are truly magnificent. Granted, the electro tracks are very danceable, but here Dark Territory don't come near the great of the genre... (9/10)"

[part of a review by Rabe, translated from German]

Lichttaufe

"The concept 'medieval music and ethno sounds meet modern electronics' hasn't been that original as it may seem since the success of Qntal and Helium Vola. But Dark Territory from the Netherlands will certainly not be accused of plagiariasm, if only because of the musical backgrounds of both protagonists, whose main field of operation as Lemonsoul has been house-music. Sure enough you wouldn't notice this by listening to the album. (...)

Sacral and mystical sounds operate independently on the one side, and are united with danceable beats on the other side. With "Creator I" even a pure future pop hymn in the style of VNV Nation is presented, but it's the odd ball out on this album. It is simply misplaced. In my opinion this is also the only point of criticism. But anyone who is into bands like Qntal, Helium Vola and O Quam Tristis, should try out Dark Territory.

[part of a review by Richard, translated from German]

Side Line Music Magazine

DT is the meeting of 2 Dutch artists who set up DT to exorcize their feelings and emotions. Both composers have been already active for numerous years, releasingan impressive number of house and techno stuff.“Libera me” sounds like an escape from this ‘happy’ scene to embrace darker sonic fields.That’s probably the reason why this album sounds so diversified, moving from a kind of ritual opening song (cf. “Ptolomea”) to an electronic-industrial approach (cf. “Deliver me”) to ambient soundfields (cf. “Tora Firome”) to some more EBM impressions (cf. “Creator I”) to finally reach a kind of esoteric sound, comparable with Dead Can Dance (cf. “Vrijdag”, “Ankesuei” and “Kalandare”).

There’s a lot to experience and discover on this album, but it doesn't always sound that compact (7/10)

[Review by Cedric, August 2005]

Raven Metal

"Dark Ambient with a folkloristic hint, recommended to lovers of artists like Elend, Dolorian, Chaostar, Dark Sanctuary and "Dark Ambient" music. (...) Very unique and artistic."

[translation from Ivrit by Itamar Lapid]

Darker Than The Bat

[Based on the unmastered demo of 'Libera Me' from 2004.]

"...This duo from The Netherlands really put their soul into their music and they really deserve more attention. Emotions are translated by music, sounds create landscapes. This wonderful new band will certainly seduce you."

[part of the review by P.J. van Damme]

Gothtronic

[Based on the unmastered demo of 'Libera Me' from 2004.]

Dark Territory is a side project of the Dutch dance producer duo Lemonsoul. I got to know about Lemonsoul because they made a stunning remix for ‘Transmission’ by the Australian electro/ebm project AngelTheory. Well, the gentlemen of Lemonsoul might have gotten inspiration through this job to start their own electronic project based on dark and melancholic atmospheres in the compositions. This project they called ‘Dark Territory’. Both members of Lemonsoul have a musical background of years in various styles, for instance new wave and electro. Next to that, both members always had a passion for musicians touching darker and melancholic snares. This project thematically evidently doesn’t come from out of nowhere.

The cd Libera Me starts with ‘Ptolomea’, an invocative track with a serene atmosphere and spoken word in the Latin language. ‘Deliver me’ is a slow electrotrack with laid-back melancholic moments which later on make place for aggressive fast moments as well. It also contains sonic elements which originate from modern trancemusic.

‘DarkFlower’ again contains conjuring Latin vocals, but this time inbedded into a melancholic triphop scene. ‘Tora Firome’ makes the listener go back in time to wake up again in renaissance Venice. A nice piece. ‘Creator I’ is a track with hard hitting drums, pounding beats and catchy hooks. This track has also been added at the end of the cd in a different, more tranquil, version called ‘Creator II’.

After a short intermezzo, also titled as such, the second part of the cd starts with the slow ‘ Vrijdag’’, a track with beautiful synth melodies, energetic percussion and a voice which reminds me, also in other tracks like ‘Ankesuei’, the exotic ‘Trista Me’ or the epic ‘Kalandare’ , which remind me of Brendan Perry of Dead Can Dance fame.

It’s nice to see that boundaries between musical styles disappear more and more and that from the techno and trance scene there’s an increasing interest in electro, synthpop and ebm again. The hedonistic nineties are over and gone. Now it’s time again for some contemplation and reflection on inner depth. (not death, would be gothic though ;) Gothic has become increasingly popular, more than ever before. This Libera Me cd of Dark Territory thus is a very well crafted modern electronic interpretation of gothic spheres. (8/10).

Genre: electro (ebm / dark electro / minimal electro(clash) / synthpop)

[review by Teknoir, 4 May 2004]

Gothtronic II

Even after 20 spins, it's still not clear what I have to say about this "Libera Me". Dark Territory, a Dutch band manages to combine several genres, which is a hard thing to conquer, so I read in various internet resources. Here and there I see comparisons to a 2005-version of Dead Can Dance, but there's always a certain electronic influence made hearable. For example; "Creator I": a song that certainly has hitpotential in clubs, without interfering the general 'feeling' of the album. The bizarre mixture with "Trista Me" and "Ptolomea" (two songs that go a completely different direction) makes it even harder to form an opinion.

The entire album is built up out of different influences and sounds, which makes these 12 songs (including 2 short interemezzo's) a bit of a mess. The songs themselves are more than okay, but it's hard to listen to an album which is so diverse from beginning to the ending. The simple fact that this is a very original album, that doesn't fall back to the regular patterns makes it hard to understand, yet making it a very interesting album. It's hard to interpret this album, but that obviously only makes it more interesting... (7.2/10)

[review by Eelco, July 2005]

Personal Opinions of 11 DJ's

[Based on the unmastered DJ Promo CD]
[10 is very good, 1 is very bad]

Audience ask if it is a new DCD-release... Especially Kalandare is a great atmospheric song. (10)

Nice CD, with nice vocals a bit reminding me of Soil&Eclipse (the non-distorted parts ;). Some songs are great for the dancefloor, but the "slower" ones are also great to listen to (and not too slow to also fit into a dancefloor set once in a while - when you want to quiet things a bit down). (8)

I like the mix of different styles and I like the danceable aspect of the music. (8)

Nice gloomy goth / dark electro from The Netherlands. Good clear vocals and nicely composed electronics create an atmosphere of up tempo tranquility in the more danceable futurepop genre. Comparable to NamNamBulu but definitely an own style. Can't wait for the full length album. (8)

Not very original things.. it's all been done before. Voice is really boring.... (7)

A good production. It's finally a band that tries to keep an own identity and definetely is succeeded in their mission. Nicely written songs and Dark Territory has the ability to suprise you during the songs. Hopefully we will hear more of them in the near future. (8)

Terrible Production, nice ideas, refreshing sound. One of the few new bands that do have something to add. (8)

'Deliver me' is a slow electrotrack with laid-back melancholic moments which later on make place for aggressive fast moments as well. It also contains sonic elements which originate from modern trancemusic. Creator 1 is a track with hard hitting drums, pounding beats and catchy hooks. The remix Angel Theory made of Creator I is very awesome, nice production, sound and heavy beats. Cool! The DarkFlower remix is almost groovy! Deliver Me in the remix is somewhat similar to the old Seelenkrank, simple but effective ;-) (8)

This release somehow doesn't stick with me.... I do get a lot of new releases all the time and I tried to listen to this album a couple of times, but somehow it doesn't have my attention for long... (7)

I don't believe i had heard about those guys before. the name of the band really explains what you will find in the disc. It sounds like a new trend, by mixing electro to some cool gothly vocals with Latin spoken tongues, Embolus has done that too to a real surprise for me. I like what i hear, i hope you do too. (8)

Dark Territory isn't very original, but the songs sound oke. Especially 'Kalandare' has hit-potential. (7)

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