Weekly Echoes #12: IT news, round-up, week 12; from 16 to 22/03; year 2026

http://huc.fr.eu.org/en/news/week-12-2026/

#Echoes #news #IT

Way back in the year before the Great Plague, I took a chance and reviewed an unheralded, self-released album by a one-man band from Belgium called Ethereal Darkness. We received the promo from the AMG contact forms without fanfare or fluff, but what I heard on Smoke and Shadows really impressed me. Project mastermind Lars created a monumental slab of melancholic, melodic doom in the vein of Insomnium, Rapture, and Before the Dawn, and the material had depth, power, and gravitas. It seemed like the work of a seasoned and polished group of musicians despite some rough edges. The years have drifted by since that review, and I’d all but given up Ethereal Darkness for dead. Imagine my surprise when Lars reached out recently to alert me to the pending release of his second album, Echoes. 6 years on, the solo project is now a full-fledged band ready to tour in support of their latest release. And what a large release it is! At 60 minutes, Echoes takes the style from the debut and goes way bigger, with much longer compositions and greater ambition in the writing. If that’s not big enough, it also features cover art from Adam Burke and a production from Dan “The Fücking Man” Swanö!1 Is bigger better in this case? Can more really be MOAR? And how are these guys still unsigned?? These are the questions of our time.

It takes ample ballsack to open with a nearly 11-minute song, but Ethereal Darkness do just that with “Gone With the Tide.” If the atmosphere on Smoke and Shadows impressed you, this will knock you into the next multiverse. It’s an epic, sweeping tableau of massive melodoom that holds nothing back as it transports you to majestic forests and towering mountains of snow and ice. It recalls the best works of Be’lakor and Black Sun Aeon, but there’s plenty of Insomnium in the DNA too. The guitarwork is phenomenal, full of sadboi trilling and doomy weight. The death vocals by Lars are very effective, the clean singing by acoustic guitarist Brecht hits the right way, and the lapses into blastbeating blackness are well-timed adrenaline spikes. This is a stupendous song and one of the best so far this year, and it goes by in a flash despite its girth. “The Cycle” continues to maintain the sky-high quality. It’s like a crazy mash-up of Eneferens and modern Amorphis, and you should pay big money for such a potent potable. It’s the kind of song you get lost in and lose track of time, and when you write songs in the 8-10 minute window, this is essential.

Elsewhere, “Winter” moves toward more blackened environs, channeling Saor and Nechochwen as epic soundscapes are raised and explored. The guitars here are beautifully rendered, and it’s another triumph for this unheralded project. Equally monolithic is “On the Edge of the Cliff,” where the music turns more aggressive and urgent, merging black and melodeath idioms adroitly for maximum impact. There’s an epic Viking metal energy here that makes you want to conquer and rule the weak, and it feels dangerously powerful. Despite so much magnificent opulence and aural decadence, there are some weaker moments. “IV” is very, very good and hints at my beloved Rapture, but it ends up feeling too long at 9:45, and trimming it by a few minutes would have helped. Ginormous closer “Realization” runs over 13 minutes, and despite good to great moments throughout, it’s undone by its sheer width and breadth. In its final minutes, I find it increasingly difficult to stay locked in and attentive. At just over 60 minutes, Echoes can be a daunting listen due to its density and length, but the reward is well worth the effort. I can’t find fault with the Swanö-ified production, as everything sounds lush, gorgeous, and heavy without being loud or oppressive.

Lars handles guitar, bass, keyboards, and harsh vocals, and to say he did an amazing job across the board doesn’t begin to cover it. There are some big, emotional moments here courtesy of his 6-string heroics, referencing the works of Tuomas Saukkonen without imitating. His deep death roars punctuate the music with force, and his blackened cackles and screams pierce through like lasers. His restrained use of keyboards should be a case study for other acts in the genre. They add atmosphere but rarely rise out of the distant background. Becht provides soothing acoustic guitar passages and clean vocals that deliver pathos and emotion. Peter’s drumming is a vast improvement over the programmed percussion from the debut, imbuing the material with vibrancy and weight. Applause all around for this crew!

Echoes is a bigger, better album than Smoke and Shadows in every way, with several tracks worthy of Song o’ the Year consideration. The album length and the bloat on a few tracks hold it back from even greater heights, but just barely. This is a sumptuous feast for the ears and mind, and I get the feeling I’ll be spending a lot of time with this over the next few months. Ethereal Darkness are about to get a lot more attention in the metalverse, and they deserve it. Hear this massive monster or be a lesser mortal. Somebody better sign these guys toot-sweet!



Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: NA | Format Reviewed: WAV
Label: Self-Release
Websites: etherealdarkness.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/etherealplace | instagram.com/etherealdarknessband
Releases Worldwide: March 20th, 2026

🎉Hallo, liebe 4Culture-Community! Unsere Kolleg:innen waren diese Woche (16.–20.03.2026) in Poznań, um an der zweiten ECHOES-Jahresveranstaltung teilzunehmen! Das Treffen brachte alle ECHOES-Partner, Schwesterprojekte und die ECCCH-Community zusammen, um der Europäischen Kommission über den aktuellen Stand,, die bisherigen Ergebnisse und Aktivitäten für die kommenden Monate zu berichten: https://www.echoes-eccch.eu/echoes-second-annual-event-in-poznan-poland/

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#ECCCH #NFDIrocks #GLAM #ECHOES #Networking #NFDIeverywhere #TIB #ECHOLOT

✨ ☁️ And as final part of the afternoon at the #ECHOES annual meeting in Poznan today - a side-by-side discussion of how the European Data Space (for Cultural Heritage) relates to the Culture Cloud (and the hashtag#ECHOES project) by #Europeana Director Harry Verwayen and #ECHOES Coordinator Xavier Rodier.

🤝 In a nutshell, the Data Space is a more permanent space for cultural data access & reuse (it's public infrastructure) and the Cloud is a processing workspace for digital collaboration and the advancement of science & research. Crucially - the added value for all stakeholders involved - comes at the space of intersection - when the two initiatives can work in synergy as spaces for knowledge building and exchange. The slide images really paint a clear picture... in theory looks great, putting it in practice will be the hard work ahead of all teams involved over the next 5 years.

📜 A joint statement signed by both initiatives (on stage) should be officially published very soon, too!

#CulturalHeritage #CulturalData #CultureHeritageCloud #ECCCH #ECHOLOT

💬 Discussions with the sister projects during the final part of the afternoon in the #ECHOES (Culture Cloud) annual meeting. Not only learning more about what each of the 10 specialised projects (alongside @ECHOLOT_Project) will focus on in terms of tool development, community building and case studies, but crucially - discussing how we can start collaborating. Where lie the community fault lines - where there is space for additional outreach and collaboration, where there is need for integration and resource sharing? I can get behind this effort to avoid duplication of effort and ultimately not waste taxpayer funding.

💫 Just the beginning of the discussion of course, and much more activities planned ahead, including the Integration Task Force workshop planned for tomorrow.

📯 Stay tuned for more updates & read more about all sister projects on the #ECHOES site: https://www.echoes-eccch.eu/echoes-welcomes-10-new-eccch-projects/

#CulturalHeritage #CulturalData #ECHOLOT #CultureHeritageCloud

🎙️ Tomasz Parkoła from PCSS Poznańskie Centrum (Poznan Supercomputing Centre) gives the keynote in the afternoon at the #ECHOES annual meeting in Poznan >> he discusses the EU AI Factories vision in relation to the Cultural Heritage sector & specifically as lead infrastructure partner in both #ECHOES (Culture Cloud) & #PIASTAI (the AI Factory node in Poland), PCSS can provide relevant perspectives on what productive synergies might look like.

📌 Some brief points from the presentation:
- 5% of global AI infrastructure - European; 75% US; 15% China >> so we have a way to go.
- But sector transformation is generally still low - relating mostly to media & tech sectors, close to CH sector, but not quite there yet.
- Also raw infrastructure is not enough >> this is an opportunity (for AI Factories) >> services on top are needed -- platform-as-a-service + AI models or pipelines (on demand).

⚙️ Here the activities in #ECHOES (& #ECHOLOT) that require such infrastructure and services could benefit from long-term & sustainable joint collaboration (& funding).

🎬 The @ECHOLOT_Project is at the second annual meeting of the #ECHOES (the European Culture Heritage Cloud) in Poznań, Poland, this week.

📅 Today the event is open to the public (with options to attend online, see below) and stakeholders have a chance to hear more about the plans of ECHOES to integrate all sister projects (i.e. all the tools like #ECHOLOT building specialised services for the Culture Cloud) and to build capacity within the European cultural heritage communities.

⚙️ This morning we heard from various ECHOES colleagues on their activities to gather detailed information about community needs through consultation activities (factsheet already available online) and the roadmap for integration of services into the Cloud. A lot of challenges ahead, but great to learn more already about the possibilities for joining forces with and across the Cloud service providers.

🔗 More infos: https://www.echoes-eccch.eu/save-the-date-second-annual-event-in-poznan-poland/
https://www.echoes-eccch.eu/echoes-consultation/

#CulturalHerage #CulturalData #ECCCH