As the band name and album title might suggest, here we’re heading into the realms of industrial, post-metal sludge and all that surrounds it. Although not a name previously known to me, Lament Cityscape have been around for a while, releasing a number of EPs and now two albums since 2013. This album is short at 24 minutes.

The sound is interesting and extreme. Here is noise. Here is a terrifying industrial atmosphere with echoing. Reverberations and a dark ambient electronic sound. This is a scene of decay and nightmares. Distorted instruments, percussion without compromise, the sense of industrial process and an echoing voice of despair. This progresses to the frenzied hammering of “Another Arc”, a further soundscape from a blackened city of industrial waste. You won’t find any birds or bees here. If you did, they’d be dead. “Innocence of Shared Experiences” allows itself the luxury of a haunting chill after the previously stifling industrial scenes, but it is no less dark or menacing. A steady beat reminiscent of Blut aus Nord starts up, but there’s something gothic about this, as a dreamy voice sways along to the dark industrial drum beat and floating clouds. Maybe there is room to breathe after all.

“Innocence of Shared Experience” is deeply atmospheric. “The Under Dark” returns us to the scary depths. It’s that industrial process again. We seem to be heading slowly towards a burning cauldron. Musically, the beat signals doom and there is again an element of gothic electronica to reinforce the pitch blackness. It fades away into the gloom. Bang goes the anvil monotonously. But something is wrong, as there is a prolonged and distant cry of agony. A morbid voice echoes as the extreme black scene unfolds. The noise signals fear as the drum hammers on, and the agonised cry which sounds like an ill wind continues. The scene moves to “Part of the Mother” and one of greater urgency before the sound subsides. As the drum beats like a machine, a spoken voice utters words amid a strange scene of noise, angst and melancholy, culminating almost inevitably in industrial chaos.

“A Darker Discharge” may be short but it is impactful and atmospheric in the blackest, most extreme, industrial, gothic and apocalyptic way. “Innocence of Shared Experiences” is cleverly positioned to give us moments of air, but Lament Cityscape leave us in no doubt that this is a world of black oppression. In “A Darker Discharge” they have created a very listenable monster of a world.

(8.5/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/LamentCityscape

https://lamentcityscapelfr.bandcamp.com/album/a-darker-discharge