Review of Dusk - The Shadowsoul

Beginning with a slightly-enjoyable and gloomy instrumental, things quickly go a little downhill for this one-man Hungarian project. Raw and unenergetic with zonked out keyboards, Dusk play a mid-tempo style of repetitive and atmospheric black metal that's probably closest to early Burzum. The vocals, perhaps one of the most defining characteristics of the album, sound like someone voicing an evil muppet with a layer of the sound of a dying cat placed over it. I can't tell if I like it or if I think it's annoying, but I have to give them credit for doing something unique. On the third track, "The Secret" the guitars sound really oddly, like the riff's being played with the side of the guitar pick. It's really unusual and sort of hypnotic. Other than that, there isn't anything too redeeming about this release, despite Dusk's unique attitude towards the bass drum - namely that it should sound like shit.

I honestly can't get into this. Not because it's exceedingly poor or anything, but simply because it doesn't have too much to offer. Sure, there are some high points, like the brief haunting string/keyboard(?) passage on "Diewish", but on the whole I'm unimpressed. The Shadowsoul feels like a pretty vacant and droning album (the shortest track is 9:34), and despite the fact that these aspects may seem like drawbacks, they actually lend themselves a little. Does it work well? No, not really, but you can tell what the man behind Dusk is trying to accomplish, and he's actually doing a decent job. It's all tastefully done. It's just too bad what he's trying to accomplish is so unrelentingly lame. Oh well, what do you expect from a guy who goes by the moniker of "Shadow"? Whatever, I don't trust people who give themselves nicknames unless they're as amazing as "ICS Vortex".

Recommended to fans of early 90's black metal and only fans of early 90's black metal. I can see some rabid 130 pound kid with dyed black hair berating me for not giving this a better score, somewhere down the line.

Release Details

Dusk

The Shadowsoul

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