Journey into the Dark is the follow up to Bartman3. Bartman3 was my introduction to Torsten his music. That was a pleasant surprise!
When the new album was announced, so when the Journey into the Dark album was announced, it meant an auto-buy.
The album has 10 songs, most of them instrumental. It starts with the title track.
This song starts with a mysterious intro, which flows into a nice song, with keys and guitar. Guitar is nicely mixed in the rears and keys in the fronts.
The Black Cage is more laid back, with acoustic guitars and violin/cello type of instruments. Distorted guitar and drums come in at half time, mixed into the center and fronts.
Dance with Demons is more up tempo, with (slide) guitar and keys dueling again. Quieter passages are mainly keys.
Track 4 has a beautiful guitar intro. The song is mixed in an effective way, as mainly the whole album is done, either guitars in the front, keys/strings in the back or vice versa.
Dark Despair is a darker song, with some electronic rhythms, with good use of the center speaker and rears, where some guitar effect is creeping in. It has the first vocals on the album. All in all a very good song, and apart from the vocals, it could be a more experimental Steven Wilson song.
Reflections is a laid back song, with some interesting organ parts mixed in the rears! The solo guitar is mixed in the center.
Tale of the Hierophant starts again with some mysterious sounds, mixed around the soundfield. Again great use of the rears with percussion in the slower passages!
Hope and Salvation goes further in the same direction, again some good guitar work combined with more electronic elements.
The album closes with more easy going songs Doubts Remain and The Middle of Nowhere, with at the end a small tribute to the ending of Pink Floyd’s Echoes
The only minor thing for me is that the drums sound a bit messy here and there.
All in all a very good album and excellent surround mix. It is great to see such releases from an independent artist.