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Dusk – Spectrums
Self-Released
Release Date: 17/02/23
Running Time: 50:00
Review by Dark Juan
8/10
Good afternoon, my dearest people. I am Dark Juan and I am writing this from my bed of pain, where it appears (but I haven’t checked yet because I am being FAR too dramatic about it) I might be enjoying a second bout of COVID-19. This is mildly irritating because victims are frankly strolling away from me laughing while I am hacking my lungs up like someone dying of TB as I try to pursue them. I have instead returned to Crow Cottage and decided to tackle my review list instead of haunt West Yorkshire like a particularly unpleasant and foul-smelling spectre (total gamma breath because my lungs are infected you see, no matter how often I brush my teeth. I’ve already brushed through the enamel to the pulp) mainly because the barking cough warns victims from half a mile away at the moment. Mrs Dark Juan has taken a break from creating the inner visions of her own private hell in fabric and gone to the post office. About this I am relieved. However, she has just been offered a place at a prestigious exhibition just off Fleet Street in the big smoke (Laaaaahndan for you non-Londoners) and now she’s panicking about timescales, which means that something hideous is going to find its way out of her sleep-deprived and coffee-overdriven mind fairly shortly…
Today’s offering upon the Splatter Platter is a one-man band from Saudi Arabia, which is NOT a place that Ever Metal gets many submissions from. In fact, I don’t think I have ever listened to a submission from the Arab world before besides one Algerian OSDM band on the Metallurg Records compilation that you will be reading about shortly. So, Dusk, then – the man who writes and records all the stuff himself with a bit of help from some of his friends. I have put who the guests on this album are and what songs they are performing upon on the track list which you will find below the rambling monologue that passes for a Dark Juan review.
Having read the blurb, I can tell you that this is Dusk’s debut record, and because Metal is not a prevalent musical genre in the Arab world, I did have some concerns about the quality of the music, performance, production, etc as this is also a self-release. Pleasingly, all these worries were set aside in short order as the polished first chords of ‘The World We Used To Know’ slammed into the old hypothalamus. Dusk plays a particularly meaty melding of Death Metal, Metalcore, Djent and Technical Metal – at least three of which Dark Juan has a nasty little obsession with, so Dusk is off to a pretty good start. There’s electronic elements that call to mind Drum ‘n’ Bass too (the end of ‘Hatred’ is very reminiscent of ‘Bucephalus’ Bouncing Ball’ by Aphex Twin) and Synthwave, slipping in and out of the shadows of the otherwise punishingly complex Metal Dusk performs. The production on the album actually has suffered from being digitised so it could be sent to me electronically, I feel I would have been better served by a copy on physical media for the full listening experience, but that is not the fault of the artist, so I am NOT going to be instructing the Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System to deduct any marks for this.
If you are into the likes of Architects, Deftones and Born Of Osiris, you will find much to enjoy – other influences I can hear are Coheed And Cambria in some of the arrangements, SOAD in some of the delivery of lyrics and some of the clean lyrics on some of the songs are super-Emo-sounding (‘Burning In My Mind’ I’m looking at you…) and then there is a HARD left turn and it suddenly appears that Dusk are the Arabian version of Seething Akira on ‘Karma Will Find You’ with some extra throat ripping brutality from Moe Steiger.
I have to say, for an artist from a country has traditionally has a dim view of Metal for religious and cultural reasons (Saudi Arabia is predominantly Wahhabi, which is a particularly pious sect of Islam) this is a very Western-looking, fucking uber-competent album – ‘Someone To Trust’ is quite reminiscent of “Digimortal” era Fear Factory, right down to the little electronic beeps, buzzes and squelches, and then there is a kawaii chorus that could have been straight off Seething Akira’s last album. The guitar work throughout the album is absolutely fucking incredible. Everything is note perfect and there are unusual and difficult time signatures all over the sodding place. There’s much to occupy the intrepid listener, especially on repeated airings of the album, there’s delicate little flourishes and touches hiding in shadowed corners. This record richly rewards repeated returns… Dark Juan also enjoyed the greater electronic, swooshy element to the music on the second half of the record (which, to be fair, is a deliberate act by Dusk as he wanted to have a record that appealed to more than just a Metal crowd… ‘Celestials’ featuring the very beautiful, dulcet tones of Iman Ahmed being a perfect example of Gunship being forcibly mated with I Built The Sky and Infinitee.)
Downsides are that there’s occasionally too much going on at once and the precision and clarity in the musicianship and writing is sometimes lost in an all-encompassing wall of noise, and the drums occupy a very odd place in the mix (in my headphones anyway) where they are neither here-nor-there and the bass is extremely subdued (not to Jason Newstead in Metallica levels, but close) and everyone who knows Dark Juan knows that Dark Juan likes big bottom ends and he cannot lie.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System awards Dusk 8/10 for a superb debut album with rather fewer flaws than you might expect. A bit more quality control on the writing of the music and a little more oversight of the producer’s desk will pay dividends here. Otherwise, this is a fucking good album that Dark Juan recommends to your attention!
TRACKLISTING:
01. The World We Used To Know (Ft. Abzy & Khalid C)
02. Digging Deeper (Ft. Alex Hamilton)
03. Breath In, Breath Out (Ft. Adnan)
04. Hatred (Ft. Alex Hamilton)
05. Lethal Perspectives (Ft. Aron Harris)
06. Agnes Of Rome (Ft. Abzy)
07. Burning In My Mind (Ft. Moe Steiger)
08. Karma Will Find You (Ft. Moe Steiger)
09. Someone To Trust (Ft. Jon Thomas)
10. Only You (Ft. Jaani Peuhu)
11. Celestials (Ft. Iman Ahmed & Abudlrahman Elghazali)
12. Absence Of Full
LINE-UP:
Dusk – another one of those irritating and good-looking people who can’t be content with just being handsome or talented. They have to be able to do other things as well and Dusk is just the same as he plays and programs everything. Sigh.
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of [user_login] and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.