Calamitous Skies first and seemingly only release so far, Demo 2023, is a marvelous outside of the box piece of work, that shows off the expertise of multi instrumentalist, composer, and lyricist Luna Darling to such a blinding perfection, that you will find yourself struggling to tear yourself away from it, even though you should be listening to other things as you promised three reviews today.

Or maybe that last bit is just me.

Anyhow, there is no getting away from Calamitous Skies once you take that first step into the wild blue yonder, and neither will you want to. It is a combination of black metal, death metal, prog rock and jazz – at least that’s what I had jotted down in my notes – but that doesn’t seem to do Calamitous Skies full justice. In fact, it seems as if that description was lacking a little something and I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was, until I was walking around my local supermarket with Demo 2023 blaring in my ears – what? I can’t be the only person that does that? – and in-between the freezer section and the bread aisle it hit me.

Luna Darling is the extreme metal equivalent of Frank Zappa.

Now, I don’t mean that she is influenced by Zappa’s music – I mean, she might be, I don’t know her well enough to ask – what I mean with that statement is that she composes some of the most intricate music you will ever hear, crossing multiple genres while she goes with the piece wherever it takes her. She makes the most complicated of sections sound completely simple, even though you can hear in its construction that there is as much going on within the bars as there is within any symphony, and that she does this all herself, including some of the most guttural bellows to shake through my headphones and into my boots, is a testament to how unbelievably talented Luna Darling is.

Calamitous Skies debut Demo 2023 has become an instant earworm with me and you can get yourself infected by heading on over to the Bandcamp Page.