Thanks to Regen Magazine, Ilker Yücel, and Linda R. Bess (Not2bmesdw) for reviewing The Darkness Forever

Anyone who hears Collide can’t help but be drawn in. kaRIN’s sultry alternative pop vocals contrast with Statik’s melodic, scratchy noise, further bending the genre delineation that streaming services require artists to select when distributing their music. The Darkness Forever doesn’t have to rely upon kaRIN to carry the weight of being a sassy sort of Siouxsie Sioux meets Gwen Stafani songstress; with the release of instrumental versions of these cover tunes on a separate album, Statik’s industrially bent guitars, arpeggiated chords, and stomping beats saunter and slither from track to track, never ceasing to scratch an itch that many listeners probably didn’t realize they had. Echoing daylight piano melodies defy the distant apparition of a reverberating pulse when cranked to full volume. Dare I say, these instrumentals would fare well in the dark, alternative karaoke bar of your living room.

The mood of the album opens with an orchestral, trancelike march to Portishead’s “Wandering Star,” before an unapologetic version of “Heart-Shaped Box” drones on pretty compositionally true to Nirvana’s original. The unique choice of slouchy-sounding tom toms stood out in “Criminal,” maybe sounding too close to the sound of a worn out djembe drum. The stupefaction award of cover song choices on this album would go to “Rocketman.” Many artists have covered the beloved Elton John song over the years – even PNAU’s mashup version “Cold Heart” made a poppy splash in 2021. This writer won’t speak for anyone else, but any version of that song conjures a forlorn sense of permanent grief every time I hear it.

As the duo had done with 2009’s These Eyes Before, Collide manages to create a fuller experience of the originals from one recognizable track to the next. Whether any of the tunes on The Darkness Forever hit a personal note for either kaRIN or Statik, I confess that I find these cover versions refreshing in a gargle-with-nails kind of way, especially as both Muse and Peter Gabriel are two of my favorite artists.