“The darkly drawn cool and artful discomfort of "Thread" … soars in a way that feels at once nostalgic but as fresh and inspirational as a 'lightbulb' moment. I love the propulsive heart here, the synth glimmers like nervous kisses, Rachel Ellis’ tribal post punk beats, the drones like flashing memories, Norah Lynn’s driving bass lines, punk noir massive guitar lines and Jana Cushman's vocal countenance, wistful / fragile simmering in existential dread.” - Robb Donker Curtius, American Pancake

“Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teen, took their own life in 2024 after enduring severe bullying at school…Portland’s Darkswoon (Jana Cushman, Norah Lynn, and Rachel Ellis) felt that loss personally, and Antivenom carries the force of that feeling with unusual clarity. Written in response to Benedict’s death, the single channels anguish into something shared, purposeful, and protective. As a queer band, Darkswoon approaches the subject not as distant observers, but as people living within the same atmosphere of danger, tenderness, and vigilance. …A steady compressed snare drives the track with a stern, almost ceremonial insistence, while synths spread in broad, beautiful sheets and bass holds everything to the earth. The arrangement carries darkwave muscle, post-punk tension, dream-pop drift, and shoegaze scale, yet the band never sounds trapped in a category. Instead, they shape a language suited to the occasion: music as memorial, music as shield, music as a place where rage can stand beside care without diminishing either.” - postpunk.com

“Yet no matter how rich the words or minutiae – this band’s sound palette, if you will, contains the entire spectrum of melancholic bliss – it’s the album as a whole that’ll follow you into your dreams, tempting you toward mystery, accreting obsessions every step of the way while shedding them at the same rate. Which, we feel, is the point with Darkswoon and explains from the inside out the extraordinary balance they manage, constantly on the verge of pitching into the abyss while steadfastly maintaining their footing. It’s where we always find them, on that daunting emotional fulcrum, teasing out tension with a mission-like seriousness – Darkswoon do many things but fucking around isn’t one of them – all the while never swerving from their purpose as musicians, their songs, those songs’ melodies, forever luring us into the world to be swirled up in a mix of confusion, love, loss, fear, despair, hope and a version of joy touched by each of those. From that perspective, Bloom Decay isn’t just a success, it’s a revelation.” - Dave Cantrell, Stereo Embers Magazine, “Back Into that Enchantedly Troubled Landscape – ‘Bloom Decay’ from Portland’s Darkswoon” - October 2022

“Superbly produced and, altogether, extremely evocative…” Destroy/Exist

“The potent driving beat (smashed and wonderfully distorted), the clean and dirty textures of synths, the dominant bass with subtle slippery shapes and Jana Cushman's vocal countenance, bruised and boldy passionate will put you in a dark headspace, ready to do combat. The blend of post-punk artistry and heavy Goth pop adornments feel emotionally pushed and stirred with layers of industrial punk, post-hardcore and shoegaze.” American Pancake

“While in some quarters the sound in which Darkswoon trade has been dubbed electronic shoegaze, if a genre tag must be applied we prefer the one found next to their name on Discogs: elektrohaze, as what one hears here in terms of atmosphere isn’t so much in thrall to the late 20th C.’s glacial sheets of reverb but rather the moody dynamics of concerted songcraft as might have been expected from PJ Harvey had she emerged in 1982 instead of a decade later, the ‘elektro’ in which case speaking for itself, the ‘haze’ deriving from the pulsating, dark emotive textures echoing back across the channel from Berlin at the time. All speculative rhetoric aside, however (and anyway Darkswoon’s name basically is their genre), Bind, contemplative in the main but fully capable of convincing with force when necessary, is at the very least forty-three of the most immersive minutes you’re likely to spend under headphones this year.” - Dave Cantrell, Stereo Embers Magazine

“Darkswoon’s latest full-length, ‘Bind’, represents a quantum leap in their sound. Fans of austere electronic acts like The Knife, Austra, and Eurythmics will find the mechanical precision of their synth leads and drum grooves addicting while followers of blissed-out guitar pop are sure to be delighted with the ambience Cushman invokes with her ethereal vocals and blurry guitar lines.” Pete Cottell, Willamette Week