If you’re having a good day, if all is bright and sunny and you’re feeling ebullient and hopeful, then think long and hard before you climb aboard the Insect Ark. Portal/Well is a full-length that is relentlessly gloomy and unsettling. Save this one for a day when you’re ready to be yanked mercilessly into that headspace, or a day when you’re there already.

Insect Ark was, until recently, the solo project of NYC bassist/multi-instrumentalist Dana Schecter (Angels of Light, Bee and Flower), who’s been recently joined full-time by drummer Ashley Spungin (Taurus). Angels of Light is, of course, lead by SWANS frontman Michael Gira, and some of his doomy, take-no-prisoners attitude has definitely carried over into Schecter’s own work.

This grim, sludgy approach is all the more interesting because the music is pretty far from anything you would traditionally call metal or industrial. The first two tracks have a sort of heavy Godflesh-scoring-a-horror movie vibe, but a lot of the album after that is ethereal, ambient… you could almost even describe it as tranquil, if it weren’t making all your hairs stand on end.

Schecter’s primary instument, the bass, is at the forefront of much of this album, and it’s played with a pulsing, crushing tone. But beneath and around the behemoth bass lines are layers upon layers of delicate steel guitar, mournful electric guitar, minimalist synth and piano, and very organic-sounding drum machines.

Portal/Well is well-named, in that it can suck you in and trap you at its deepest, darkest points. I look forward to seeing where this project evolves, especially now that a full-time drummer is on board. Great stuff.

Portal/Well is available now from Autumnsongs Records.