Dusk – Repoka
Dusk – Repoka
Self-Released
Release Date: 29/08/25
Running Time: 14:39
Review by Dark Juan
Score: 47,000,000/10
Hello, my friends. Dark Juan here, fresh from a lovely holiday in Shropshire. Well, I say lovely, but it was extremely hot, and Mrs Dark Juan and the dogs spent quite a lot of time in the river in Clun to cool off. I have drunk my own body weight in Citadel Ale and Bunnahabhain single malt and I passed my half-century while away. What a beautiful place rural Shropshire is, though. Rolling hills and charming small towns abound, and in a moment of cosmic synergy my cousin and her husband from London appeared at my car window on my birthday, and the day after, on a trip to Bishop’s Castle, we ran into my aunt. These random encounters reminded Dark Juan that the world is considerably smaller than it has ever been before, as did the greetings I received from friends around the world. My twisted black heart was almost touched by encomiums from friends from four continents, from the Brazilian Ever Metal contingent (Victor and the Metalphysicist) through to alt models from Scandinavia to my friends in Belarus and Russia and Israel.
The point of this is that it is perfectly fine to dislike the policies of governments but remain friendly with individuals – they are not responsible for high level decisions and normally will abhor those decisions themselves, yet they do not have the facility to openly protest, because they have to deal with their communications being monitored and secret police and the like. You must cherish these people and support them as best you can. They are dealing with things that we in the “free” world only read about. We don’t disappear because the state thinks we are dangerous.
Anyway, I have had the Platter of Splatter™ under containment for some time so it is time for it to be released. An offering has been reverently placed upon it and this time we are listening to Costa Rican Black Metal/ Industrialists Dusk. Regular perusers will remember that I reviewed their album “Industrie” a while ago – here’s the link if you wish to refresh your memory:
I rather enjoyed it. It is with considerable enthusiasm, then, that I unleash “Repoka” on the Platter of Splatter ™. This is a four-track EP. I say I am enthusiastic. What I am, actually, is a disgusting, greasy, sweaty mess as the heat from the baleful Eye of Sauron equivalent in the sky is cooking me alive. I am as enthusiastic as it is possible to be while expiring from heat exhaustion. The blurb promises 15 minutes of “a condensed, high-voltage sonic spectrum”. What you actually get is a form of sonic murder that melds the misanthropic alienation of Black Metal with the cold, sharp-edged concrete of Industrial brutalism, however, on this EP Dusk have broadened their musical horizons with lo-fi beats and some seriously heavy Hard Bass. This does not dilute the unremittingly bleak music that Dusk produces. It is rather the converse, the chopping up of sounds, the backward masking and sudden tempo changes and screeching of tortured electronics considerably enhancing their Industrial Black Metal sound. There’s even a cover of ‘Raining Blood’ on here, that sparks, fizzes and bludgeons. Its all jackhammer percussion, broken and failing electronics, machinery clattering to a halt and spewing razor-sharp fragments of metal and red-hot hydraulic oil in all directions, humans being saturated with it and pustulant blisters bursting while blood wells from partly cauterised slashes where pieces of scorching metal have torn through their flesh. It is not what you would consider a straight cover, the song is merely a vehicle for Dusk to unleash their individual brand of musical madness upon you.
The EP opens with ‘Dark Shaman’, which is a shockingly powerful, yet deceptively simple Industrial piece which sets the tone for the rest of the EP. It’s damaged, utterly uncompromising and unremittingly dark. The guitar and bass tones are meatier than a butcher’s window, and underneath those instruments there is some truly demented Electronic work – things scream and jabber and howl beneath the surface where emaciated hands and arms claw form cages beneath floor level, jerking spasmodically as current occasionally flows through the bars. The cages are slick with human filth and corpses are trampled underfoot by the denizens within as they reach out for some kind of human contact and are punished time and again for it.
‘Demons’ is another matter entirely. This is a warp speed trip through psychotic madness, broken up with recorded words from an incarcerated person being questioned about their mental illness. The vocals are savage – words are barely discernible as vocalist Shaman gibbers, screams and roars over music that has more in common with torture than arrangement. It is the pounding of endless, massive rock crushers and massy hammers pounding against sheet steel in a cacophonous percussive assault that is designed to destroy sanity and render people into stone-deaf automatons in the grimmest factories ever created, where there are chutes to remove the dead alongside the never-stopping machinery, humans merely being the easily replaceable meat component of a place that excretes product to be used in extermination.
‘Directive 7’ is much the same although the tempo has been slowed to a level that implies a slow advance under a creeping artillery barrage across a landscape scarred by shellfire and nuclear shockwaves, shattered concrete and radiation being the only things that can be experienced for miles in every direction, Geiger counters clicking wildly while soldiers drop on their endless march, their protective gear overwhelmed by the sheer amount of poison overwhelming their protective gear, lungs choked with radioactive particles and their strength failing them with every step while gunfire, large calibre artillery and rocketry explode within their ranks and send welters of blood, flesh, and severed limbs skywards with every explosion of irradiated dirt and rock.
Well, its fair to say that Dusk have utterly destroyed by remaining holiday mood. “Repoka” is grim, unyielding and absolutely devastating. In which case, it means that it’s fucking brilliant!
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System (El sistema patentado de clasificación de salpicaduras de sangre de Dark Juan para nuestros queridos lectores hispanohablantes. Antes quería irme de vacaciones a Costa Rica. Ahora, después de escuchar Dusk, ya no estoy tan seguro. Si así suena el lado oscuro de Costa Rica, ¡creo que mi vida corre un grave riesgo! Quizás me quede en Inglaterra, donde Dusk no pueda alcanzarme…) awards Dusk 47,000,000/ for yet another “musical” triumph. I was going to deduct marks for this only being an EP but its that good I don’t even care about my own arbitrary rules any more!
TRACKLISTING:
01. Dark Shaman
02. Demons
03. Directive 7
04. Raining Blood
LINE-UP:
Dusk – programming synthesizers and effects
Shaman – vocals
Implacable – guitar
Pàlak – bass
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.
