Sadness | Artist
Sadness is the black metal project of Damián Antón Ojeda, formed 2014 in Oak Park, Illinois. Born in Mexico City, Damián Antón Ojeda began the Sadness project while living in Illinois, and has charted a prolific musical path, having released over 40 albums and a smattering of collaborations with other metal projects. Ojeda is responsible for all instruments and songwriting on his Sadness releases. The debut album Close came out in 2014 on Depressive Illusions Records. In the same year, two more works, To Despair Of... and Fading Days Away..., followed on the Ukrainian label. A second recurring partner, particularly for releases up to and including 2016, was the Italian music label War Against Yourself, which specializes in depressive black metal. From 2017 onwards, Ojeda primarily relied on Avantgarde Music and its subsidiary label Flowing Downward. The style of music is described as Black Metal / Shoegaze, however more recent albums, such as Circle of Veins, incorporates more electronic sounds. Sadness has rapidly built a cult following, as one of the leading players in the genre of so-called "blackgaze", eliciting rave reveiws such as the following from RYM for the 2019 album I Want to be There: "I'm fairly well-versed in blackgaze, but never have I come across something so richly textured and simultaneously so raw. I'm not the first to say it, but this is what is so impressive about Sadness - the combination of complex, deep sonic atmospheres with powerful emotion. And that's not even mentioning the lyrics and the vocals, both of which are excellent". Other reviewers point to the artist's control over song composition, in what might otherwise seem to be unstructured noise: "What makes this album stand out is that it’s both raw and polished at the same time. It’s chaotic but in a structured way. To me, it feels like an organized mess. While it may be complex, it’s never chaotic without reason—every chord, every riff, feels like it belongs exactly where it is. Even with tracks that go on for over 8 minutes, not a single song overstays its welcome." Of the artist's swarm of album releases to-date, some standouts include Leave (2017), Circle of Veins (2019), I Want to be There (2019), _______ (2021), Your Perfect Hands and My Repeated Words (2024), and I Want to Make Something As Beautiful As You (2024). In interview, Ojeda described his early interest in black metal; "My first exposure to black metal was probably with Cradle of Filth’s Dusk and Her Embrace when I was 12. Then, when I was 14, I started really discovering a lot of underground music and black metal, and black metal subgenres started to stand out the most to me.. "What inspires these atmospheres are my emotions, a dreamlike state, a pure immersion in sensation and the timelessness of an unforgettable moment. The formlessness when experiencing something beautiful. I want people to listen to my music and feel some sort of magic." Outside of his Sadness project, Ojeda is also a member of black metal groups Born an Abomination, Kaskaskia, and An Open Letter. Damian's brother Sebastián Antón-Ojeda, who lives in Mexico, is also a musician who has released several albums under the name "Among".
Artist Website: sadnessmusic.bandcamp.com
Featured Albums: Sadness
Related Artists: Damián Antón Ojeda, Abriction
