(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut album released in December by a two-man band from NJ/PA named Duskmourn.)
Do you like the idea of Omnium Gatherum with folk elements instead of more modern futuristic textures and sounds? Duskmourn is for you. Combining sounds of Omnium, Dark Tranquility, Hypocrisy, and something of a Be’lakor vibe, Duskmourn’s debut Legends is a satisfying melodic death metal morsel.
Duskmourn is an American duo. There is Bill Sharpe in charge of drums, guitars, and keyboards, and Walter Deyo in charge of vocals, bass, and also guitars. The music is feral and forlorn and has that marching-into-battle feel. I hate saying that, because when you say that most people seem to bounce right to Amon Amarth. There is a bit of that vibe on here, too, but it’s by no means an accurate or fair comparison.
Legends is an album that plays itself pretty straight. Duskmourn obviously just want to create well-written, driving melodic death metal with a majestic sense of power behind it. They are all about the consistent rhythm/lead melody style of guitar work that Dark Tranquility has always loved. Their music is either mid-paced or groove-driven, and the melodies are all pretty emotive and retain that medieval folksy character. There are some traces of black metal, too. Blast beats and tremolo-picked melodic lines and chords pop up here and there to offer much-needed bursts of intensity to break the band’s groove-centered attack.
I like that this album is mixed like a melodic death record from the late 90’s/early 2000’s — very airy and thick with a lot of atmosphere. This sounds a lot like older Hypocrisy records in terms of its mix.
Not much more to say, except that these guys seem worth noting. I enjoy this album a lot on an “it’s pretty fucking good” note. Judge for yourself.
http://duskmourn.bigcartel.com
https://www.facebook.com/duskmournmetal/
http://www.duskmourn.com
8 Responses to “DUSKMOURN: “LEGENDS””
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
This album is very good, the folk influence fits perfectly with the melodies, powerful and emotive, this is satisfying melodic death metal, I enjoy this album a lot, majestic is the right word!
This is good shit.. you had me at Be’lakor 🙂
Good to read this, my copy of the CD arrived this week. I was readily impressed when I heard it on Bandcamp, looking forward to giving it a good listen at high volume and then a spin on my radio show here in Australia.
I don’t understand why someone would reduce all epic sounding melo-death to “sounds like Amon Amarth” (TMI, I know you aren’t saying that). If I had to compare their sound to another band, it would be Be’lakor. But then they have their interesting pagan folk explorations that really help this particular album’s pacing.
By the way, it took me a while to find a good digital download site for these guys. Cdbaby is your best bet. The artists get a 91% cut, and FLAC format is available for audiophiles:
http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/Duskmourn
Ahh. thanks for that. Here I was waiting for a semi-dubious money transfer so I could purchase it via iTunes (to get around their shitty geolocation-based selling). Any chance to boycott iTunes gets a vote in my book. And being a wanna-be audiophile, I loves me some FLAC.
For me, this was one of the best metal albums of 2014, together with Nothgard, Maat and Inferi.
Well crap, those are three albums I never listened to (just a bit if the Inferi). More listening ahead….
A great Duskmourn new album June 16th will be bought on the shelves
Welcome to Finland 🙂 yeah!