In the November installment of our monthly metal column The Black Market, “Bigbury April Twilight” from the blackgaze project Sadness was honored as the month’s #1 track. My esteemed friend and colleague Michael Nelson had this to say about project mastermind Damián Ojeda’s most prominent alias:

Sadness songs tend to be massive expanses, built on a bedrock of black metal, climbing skyward to an ambient ether, sucking in anything that might fall between the two. (One of Sadness’ new songs, “Collar,” includes a section that was, per Ojeda, intended for a reggaeton track.) It’s easy to feel lost when you first find yourself there. And it’s easy to get lost when you first go inside. And when people ask me where to start with Sadness, that’s exactly what I tell them to do. Find yourself there, feel lost, go inside, get lost. There’s nowhere to start. So start nowhere. You’re in the middle of a massive lake on a moonless night. Sink or swim.

With that in mind, I guess today’s new Sadness split with fellow blackgazers Unreqvited is as good a place to begin as any. The record features one song by each artist — “Redroom Autumn Tensions” from Sadness, and then “Perpetual Green Of The Willow Groves” by Unreqvited — but those songs are crushing behemoths that each surpass the 20-minute mark. So basically you’re getting enough music here to qualify this split single as an LP by some measures. It’s certainly more of a thrill ride than your average 40-minute music dump.

Alright, time to sink or swim. Happy Valentine’s Day?