Dust Is Everywhere
Attics And Catacombs
5.2
Synopsis:
The debut release from Matt Moore’s (XXX Maniak, Rumplestiltskin Grinder) new label, Creeping Vine Productions, is a forgetful foray into supposedly classically inspired, but ultimately mediocre black metal.
Review:
The US duo of ‘Dust’ and ‘Old”, while having good intentions and trying to put the creepy back into black metal with a heavy King Diamond sense of theatrics and themes, just don’t have the song writing ability to craft anything more than monotonous, slightly derivative and well, 'dusty'.
Despite a decent, crisp production and guitar tone, the songs are just flat out repetitive and glaringly undynamic. Even the injection of a few ‘creepy’ interludes such as heard on the intro, “Into the Catacombs” or mid section of “Horrid Places” fail to register amid the starkly lifeless riffage and generally singular pace. It’s like Scandinavian black metal sucked of its creative life-force and rendered as a shallow husk-on the surface it looks like the real thing, but inside it's just hollow.
While certainly delivering both a frosty ambivalence to the riffs, the dusty, attic-y, Hammer House horror themes just don’t seem to fit the presentation of the music; for example, penultimate track “Inhaling Cryptic Air” actually has some solid riffage and a well placed interlude, but partly due to the band’s name, I couldn’t help picture some asthmatic wheezing old man rather than grim and paranoia filled horror. I can think of far more disturbing and scary places than an attic or a “Wine Cellar” (the closing track).
With US black metal starting to really garner some respect, I can appreciate Dust Is Everywhere’s (that moniker really doesn’t help either) more old school and theatric approach, but name dropping King Diamond is a reach above and beyond the themes, as musically Dust Is Everywhere simply need some polish to stand out in the black metal genre.
