WL//WH Premiere: DARKSWOON Pulls on a “Thread” of a Trauma Bond

photo by @hippocampusphoto

Darkswoon, the Portland, Oregon “ElectroHaze” trio made of Jana Cushman (guitar, vocals), Norah Lynn (bass), and Rachel Ellis (keys, synths, beats), rolls out “Thread”, the first excerpt from the band’s forthcoming fourth album “Antivenom”, due out on April 3rd through the ‘dark music for dark hearts’ Oakland label Viasonde.

The immersive haunting intensity of Darkwave, the shimmering hazy textures of Shoegaze and the pulsating drum patterns of Electronic music seamlessly harmonize and resonate into the mesmerizing Darkswoon sound.

“Antivenom” is the fourth album from Portland melancholic dark alternative trio Darkswoon, further refining the band’s emotionally charged intersection of darkwave, post-punk, and shoegaze. Built atop a hardware-driven electronic foundation, the record balances cold mechanical textures with an intimate human core, cradling Jana Cushman’s ethereally soaring vocals. Lyrically, Cushman confronts loss, anxiety, fear, and inequality with unflinching honesty, wielding words as both confession and scalpel.

photo by @hippocampusphoto

“Thread” is a song about how trauma forms a dark, intimate bond between people and might give personal insight into the other’s behavior. The lyrics also point out that as much as you think you may know someone through said shared experiences, there are always unknowns, such as suicide notes, that exist.

The song stirs up a steady evocative headlong rush of skittering programmed beats and supple, nervously humming bass pulses to underlie a hovering sheet of frightened sparkling synth flurries, surrounding anxious, sad female vocals, soaring with pain and layering with celestial skies, amidst intervals of searing, jagged guitar riffs and moving wistful key melodies, building into a grinding menace of impending doom.

Darkswoon‘s forthcoming fourth album, “Antivenom”, will be released, on CD/Vinyl & Digital formats, on April 3rd via Oakland‘s independent label Viasonde.

If you’re in Seattle this weekend, be sure to check out Darkswoon headlining on the first night, Friday, February 6th, at SINTH FEST (PNW Dark Music Festival).

Keep up with Darkswoon and Viasonde: