(Our Norway-based contributor Chile wrote the following very enthusiastic review of the sophomore album released earlier this month by D.C.-based Desolus.)
For a guy who’s constantly (or often enough) on about how he likes his metal fast, I feel like I am not listening to nearly enough thrash metal, arguably one of the fastest genres around. Furthermore, since thrash can be easily welded together with influences from both death and black metal, thus making it even more interesting and varied, I really have no excuse.
So what better chance to indulge in such activities than to wield some wicked new thrash album and give it a proper review in the process (I am also not claiming here that I can actually write a proper review), and therefore we are joined today by Washington D.C.’s Desolus and their just-released sophomore album Dwellers of the Twilight Void.
The band itself has been around for a couple of years now, and their 2024 debut System Shock was already a fine-crafted example of mostly early German thrash-inspired riff-fests. You know the kind, a no-nonsense, bludgeoning type with everything coming at you at full speed and with a pleasure to kill.
You’ll be then more than happy to hear that the new album continues down that fury road, with all guns blazing. The lean and mean 36 minutes suggest that the band deemed it necessary to tighten the noose even tighter, and with a tangible Sadus influence, it certainly seems so.
Now, I have seen thrash being accused of being stuck in the ’80s, having nothing new to offer, self-referentially falling into self-parody or what not. Desolus absolutely rips that script up and serves us a timely lesson in violence that is both rooted in the past, but is also steadfastly branching out into the future of the genre.
The dark, occult cover art draws us in and marks the change from the brightly coloured, sci-fi hell of the debut album, taking us into the infernal depths of this void between the light and darkness. As a side note, with them being from D.C. and calling their album Dwellers of the Twilight Void, I could also go that way and find some jokes along the way, but will take the high road instead and just concentrate on this fine piece of music.
Short, eerie intro “The Portal” leads us through the, er, let’s say some kind of gate, directly into the title track which bursts out with a riff so vicious that your face will melt both literally and figuratively. Shrieking vocals accompany the riffs perfectly, being of that kind how you would normally expect werewolves to sound, half howling, half trying to utter some words.
We have also mentioned speed, and the album is definitely not holding back. Same as that famous bus, if it were ever to slow down, it would probably self-ignite and go out in a great ball of fire. The band’s sound also benefits from expanding the line-up early in 2026 by adding Bileh Dougsiyeh as a new drummer, while Travis Stone switched to second guitar thus adding the advantage of the dual axe attack for greater damage.
And damage continues with ragers like “Trespass the Threshold” and the devastating “Threading the Atom” showing the band’s capacity for wild, adventurous songwriting, packing everything tight into the 4 minute long small explosion devices. As with many bands I come across, my wish is to see these turbo-charged riffs played live, and if any promoters are reading this, just get these guys on tour with, let’s say, Nekromantheon and Schizophrenia (the Belgian band), and you have a hit on your hands.
Elsewhere, the speed demon of “The Pact (Sealed in Blood)” makes us feel the fire, while “Visages of Death” adds some fine, prominent bass to this neverending epidemic of violence. The crushing “Primordial Evil” just confirms all that’s being said about the band’s qualities, taking us savagely through the whole spectrum of death.
We could say maybe that the (obligatory) Slayer cover doesn’t add much to the experience as a whole, but then again, it’s “Show No Mercy” played by a band on fire, so I should just shut up and be happy about it. Bashing through these ten tracks like their lives depended on it, the band does live up to the high expectations, and what better way than to end the album on a high note with the monstrous “Nefarious Dominion” making us hungry for more Desolus.
In the end, we can summarize that Dwellers of the Twilight Void is some of the thrashiest thrash you are bound to come upon this year. The news of thrash’s death was surely premature and we shall live another day to witness more greatness coming out of this particular genre. For those about to thrash, we salute you!
“Dwellers of the Twilight Void” is out now on Hells Headbangers Records in all available formats. Orders for the record and all related merchandise are possible via label and Bandcamp stores.
https://desolus-us.bandcamp.com/album/dwellers-of-the-twilight-void