Temptation is rarely a solitary affair. In most foundational myths, it is a transaction—a serpent and a woman, a demon and a man. Yet, the narrative almost always centers on the corruption of one by the other, a struggle against a fall. What happens, however, when the fall is not a struggle but a shared desire? What if the abyss is not something one is pushed into, but a space two figures choose to enter, hand in hand?

This is the complex, unsettling territory explored by Dark Minimal Project, the French electro-darkwave duo of Guillaume Vanderosieren and Ange Vesper. Their third full-length album, ‘Pleasure Is A Sin,’ which arrived on September 26, 2025, via the esteemed German label Infacted Recordings, is a work of such conceptual depth that its impact continues to unfold, warranting a closer look well past its release date.

More than a collection of songs, the album presents itself as a singular, unified statement, a concept piece built around a subversive vision of transgression. The band describes it as a story concerning “the relationship between the fallen angel and the other who tries to hold him back in his fall but who wants to fall with him.” It is a crucial distinction. This is not a cautionary tale about resisting sin, but a psychological drama about the magnetic pull of a mutual descent, where temptation becomes the ultimate act of communion.

Dark Minimal Project: A Trajectory Through Shadow

This newfound thematic and sonic ambition is not an abrupt pivot but the culmination of a remarkably focused and rapid evolution. Since their formation in 2022, Dark Minimal Project has moved with deliberate purpose.

Their debut album, ‘Cold Black Room,’ released that same year, established their core sound with the guidance of producer Peter Rainman, who has remained a consistent collaborator. While that record introduced their darkwave sensibilities, it was their second album, ‘Ghost of Modern Times’ (2023), and the extensive touring that followed, that solidified their identity.

Sharing stages across Europe with formidable acts from the genre’s pantheon, including Das Ich and Neuroticfish, the duo honed their craft into a potent live experience, their sound spreading from their native France into the fertile grounds of Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The most significant turning point, however, arrived in February 2024 with the release of the ‘Remixes’ LP. The record featured reinterpretations by respected artists like Ruined Conflict and People Theatre, but its centerpiece was a remix contributed by Patrick Codenys of the pioneering Belgian group Front 242. This was more than a simple collaboration; it was a symbolic endorsement from one of the primary architects of Electronic Body Music.

To receive such a co-sign is a rare validation, and it served as a clear harbinger of the band’s future direction. It is no coincidence that this affirmation from an EBM legend immediately preceded their signing to Infacted Recordings, a German label managed by Torben Schmidt and deeply rooted in the continent’s industrial and electronic traditions.

The Codenys remix was the bridge, granting Dark Minimal Project the credibility and momentum to step confidently into a harder, more aggressive sonic world.

First Whispers of Damnation

The initial evidence of this transformation came with the album’s pre-release singles. The first, the double A-side ‘Staring Away / Time Runs Out,’ released in October 2024, signaled a clear departure. ‘Staring Away’ is built on a foundation of cold, propulsive energy, its driving synthesizer lines and insistent rhythm creating an atmosphere of anxious momentum. It was an immediate declaration of a more intense, “in-your-face” approach, trading some of the duo’s earlier synth-pop melancholy for a more threatening, contained rage.

This promise was fully realized with the second single, ‘Spoke to The Devil,’ which arrived in February 2025. The track is a masterful fusion of styles, blending the percussive intensity of EBM with the cathartic release of a retro dance floor anthem. It is here that the album’s conceptual core begins to manifest in sound—a demonic fiesta where the sacred and profane meet under a disco ball.

The accompanying music video for the Rob Dust remix of the track deepens this dialogue with history in a remarkably sophisticated manner. The video is composed entirely of footage from Benjamin Christensen’s groundbreaking 1922 silent film, ‘Häxan’ (‘La Sorcellerie à travers les âges’). This is not a superficial aesthetic choice.

Weaving their modern electronic track through these century-old images elevates Dark Minimal Project’s theme beyond a personal narrative. The “sin” in their music becomes entwined with a long history of moral panics and the persecution of transgression.

The devil they speak to is not merely a supernatural entity, but the historical specter of societal judgment, a theme of willful ignorance they also explored with the pointedly-titled single ‘Schlafen!.’ This makes their conceptual “fall” a conscious act of defiance.

The Design of a ‘Pleasure Is A Sin’

Synthesizing the available elements—the singles, the conceptual statements, and the artwork—reveals ‘Pleasure Is A Sin’ as a meticulously constructed whole. The band has confirmed that “the cover already says a lot (if you look closely at the small details),” and indeed, the artwork is a rich, allegorical tableau that stages the album’s central conflict.

The cover presents a highly stylized, theatrical scene: a tormented figure with angel wings is seated before a table laden with classic vanitas symbols—a skull, an hourglass, an apple, and wine—while a tattooed, earthly figure stands behind him. This imagery creates a powerful tension between the sacred and the profane, the celestial and the carnal.

The fall from grace, the cover suggests, is an intimate psychological drama, a temptation played out with the symbolic weight of centuries of art history.

This is reinforced by the album’s narrative arc, which can be traced through its tracklist. The eleven songs—‘Staring Away,’ ‘In My Veins,’ ‘Promiseland,’ ‘Spoke To The Devil,’ ‘So Far Away,’ ‘Frozen Times,’ ‘Blanc & Noir,’ ‘Time Runs Out,’ ‘This City,’ ‘Give Me An Angel,’ and ‘The Great Fall’—suggest a linear journey from introspection and temptation to a final, climactic descent.

The inclusion of a cover of John Foxx’s 1981 classic ‘This City’ is a masterstroke, explicitly linking their work to the dystopian, architectural anxieties that defined the origins of synth-pop.

The sound of the album, described as a “haunting fresco” with “tormented, immersive sound design” and vocals that shift between “desperate whispers and raw outbursts of rage,” appears to mirror this psychological journey perfectly. The pleasure and sin of the title become a response to the emptiness of modern life, a transgressive act against a world that can feel devoid of genuine feeling.

Echoes in the Concrete Cathedral

With this album, Dark Minimal Project is not just releasing new music; they are consciously positioning themselves within a rich and varied artistic lineage. Their work weaves together three distinct but related threads of European dark electronic music.

The first is the percussive, bodily aggression of Belgian EBM, made explicit through their connection to Front 242’s Patrick Codenys. The second is the theatrical, poetic nihilism of the German Neue Deutsche Todeskunst movement, a history they honor by having toured with one of its foremost proponents, Das Ich. The third is the cold, alienated modernism of early British synth-pop, invoked directly through their interpretation of John Foxx.

This is not a simple homage to influences but a sophisticated synthesis. They are creating a new fabric from these historical threads, producing a sound that is physically impactful, emotionally dramatic, and intellectually resonant. This synthesis proves them to be not just students of the genre, but thoughtful curators and innovators within its ongoing tradition.

The Ritual on Stage

‘Pleasure Is A Sin’, co-produced and arranged with their steadfast collaborator Peter Rainman, is available on CD and vinyl from Infacted Recordings. The album’s release is being supported by a European tour that is itself a curated cultural undertaking.

The tour began on October 4, 2025, in Hautrage, Belgium, with an opening night that featured a special DJ set from Patrick Codenys, a symbolic blessing from the genre’s past. From there, the tour proceeds through the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark before returning for a series of dates in France.

A particularly notable engagement will take place on November 8, 2025, in Essen, Germany, where Dark Minimal Project will be joined by the Portuguese duo NECRØ. NECRØ’s potent blend of industrial, darkwave, and cinematic synthesizer soundscapes promises to create a cohesive and immersive concert experience, showcasing the genre’s vibrant present alongside its storied history.

A Beautiful, Uncompromising Descent

With ‘Pleasure Is A Sin,’ Dark Minimal Project has completed its transformation from a promising act into an essential one. The album stands as their most uncompromising and intensely evocative work to date, a mature and resonant expression on the allure of the profane.

Their conceptual “fall” is not an admission of failure but a triumphant artistic leap into a deeper, more complex, and ultimately more rewarding darkness.

In a music culture geared toward standalone tracks and algorithm-driven listening, Dark Minimal Project has constructed an album that functions as a single, narrative entity, demanding a dedicated, uninterrupted listen. It is a work that matters because it demonstrates with chilling elegance that even within established forms, there are still new, nuanced, and necessary stories to be told about the oldest of human themes: the beautiful, terrifying, and irresistible gravity of the fall.

The concept of a “willing fall” is central to ‘Pleasure Is A Sin.’ In your own experience with art, where have you seen the deliberate embrace of transgression or “sin” lead to the most profound creative or emotional truths?