There is something looming just under the surface on Dark Making, the latest album by He Didnt. Beneath the often abrasive drums, and the chugging guitars that feel ripped out of both nu and industrial metal, there’s something tender that’s trying to reach out from the depths and break through.
The album announces itself with thudding violence: the staccato strumming and feedback in the riff that recurs throughout ‘Bass Tape Loop’ jolts the album to life. The song assembles itself around this looping riff, which feels more abrasive as the synths emerge in the background – a sustained, single note that eventually herald the arrival of the drums. Layered on top of each other, this trio becomes dissonant, and even threatens to become overwhelming. Until the guitar disappears from the song.
The structure of this song often feels – for better and for worse – like the album itself in microcosm. A loop is established, and new instruments are brought in around it. Then, just before it becomes too much and threatens to collapse in on itself, the composition is stripped back, and the softer instruments are left alone to fill a space that’s suddenly become vast and cavernous. While much of the album foregrounds these distorted, violent industrial soundscapes, it’s the moments that are quiet, almost tender, that are the highlights of Dark Making.
Hidden beneath the aggression of its opening tracks, Dark Making is an album with a lot of depth. While songs like ‘Bass Tape Loop’, ‘Death to Self’ and ‘Black Death Tarot’ all follow a similar structure and pattern, there are some moments that break away from it and allow the album’s better tracks to feel singular. ‘Throbsolete’, in particular, showcases the best of what Dark Making has to offer. A vocal sample emerges from beneath the instrumentation, offering a counterpoint to the darkness of the track. Rather than compounding dissonance, this offers a new dimension to the song – and the album as a whole. ‘Throbsolete’ is the first time a voice can be heard, bringing a sense of humanity to the often bleak industrial landscapes that define the record. The track is also given a longer ending than much of the album, as its solitary drum loop plays out. But, like most of Dark Making, ‘Throbsolete’ feels like it ends too suddenly. Silence arrives immediately in a way that undercuts the way that He Didnt’s arrangements come together and apart as each song progresses.
Dark Making is an album that feels divided in two. Almost exactly at the halfway point, ‘Depressed Mode Interlude’ functions as an overture for the final tracks. The structure that has defined so much of the album disappears. Here, instruments come and go in fragments, as if the album’s soundscapes are literally unable to hold themselves together. What follows is the strongest run of tracks on the album, including the highlight ‘Industrial Nostalgia’, which brings in a new level of depth. The voice in the background is softer, and the drums beat in a steadier rhythm. The song’s dynamic changes feel more gradual and the guitar’s final drone is given the space it needs to linger. While much of Dark Making explores landscapes that are harsh and unforgiving, this is Dark Making at its most defined, offering a glimpse of tenderness and humanity that allows the album to become more than an endlessly violent industrial drone.
