ALBUM REVIEW: Industrie – Dusk
Initially forming as a one man affair, DUSK have quickly risen to be one of Costa Rica’s most promising and aurally stunning new acts. Developing a style that couples black metal with heady industrial overtones, the band’s output has become more prolific and dramatic over the last few years, especially from their 2019 EP onwards, when band founder Enrique Valverde was joined by a full backing band, meaning that their albums have become more frequent and even more punishing than before. Their latest album, Industrie, their fifth overall and fourth since 2020’s The Hermit, sees the band’s domineering brand of blackened industrial music reach new and even more impressive heights.
Industrie I starts proceedings in a dark and ominous fashion, with sinister keyboards setting a bleak tone that foreshadows the sombre dirge of the bulk of this music. It bursts into life with some tight, chunky guitar work, authoritative drumming and epic atmospherics, creating an imposing sound that is as dramatic as it is mechanical at points. The caustic snarl of the vocals seems to be buried under the much more muscular musical backdrop, but this is intentional, adding a raw edge to this that makes the harshness that this song eventually descends into feel even more claustrophobic. Industrie II, with its denser, droning sound, is a much more doom-laden affair, even compared with the melancholic touches of the opener, blending together the domineering industrial elements with a hint of DSBM, punctuated by thunderous percussive bursts and rumbling gutturals, shifting gradually into a far heavier, more belligerent track with a coarser brand of black metal, although the overriding programming rhythms and spacey keys remain a powerful anchor for this song’s entirety.
Industrie III with its heady, synth-driven sound, veers abruptly into the realms of goth, providing a lighter but nonetheless effective sound than the preceding two offerings and creating a hypnotic and punchy sound that instantly draws the listener in. Where the previous tracks were centred upon the blackened qualities at their core, this is almost purely industrial, with only a few guitar hooks being added to remind you of the band’s extreme roots, and this significant change of pace makes this song much more impactful as a result. Industrie IV ties meaty, groove-laden black metal into the haunting and cinematic style of the previous track, embracing a chaotic and unnerving aspect within the band’s sound that balances the two sides of their music more seamlessly than on earlier efforts, with the ebb and flow between metal and electronic music turning this into an incredibly memorable piece of music.
Industrie V, with its huge, primal drums and muscular guitar sound, serves as a much weightier and more aggressive slab of industrial black metal that is driven by a monolithic rhythmic undercurrent, subtle, whispering vocals and a production that allows the sharper, punishing parts to cut through the murky, sepulchral tone that hangs over this whole song without relying too prominently on one aspect of the sound to carry this music all the way through. Industrie VI possesses a drier, more energetic approach to guitars that threatens to replace the bombastic synths at the backbone of the music, with the vocals and drums taking a noticeable backseat to enable these two magnificent performances to play off each other, playing an aural tug of war that again makes this feel eclectic, finding room for a generous dose of goth which is peppered throughout this bellicose and animated slab of fierce hooks and robust riffs.
Freezing Moon VII, a brilliant re-imagining of the classic MAYHEM track, transposes many of the driving moments, which originally featured as guitar parts, onto the keys, turning what was a cold and biting juggernaut into an ethereal anthem with a decidedly warmer sound. It retains just the right amount of the grim and dirty tone of the original to make it recognisable, but expertly moves sections around and turns much of the well-known formula on its head, transforming this song into something else entirely and capping off this album extremely well.
Industrie is an incredibly powerful and imposing statement that manages manages to show just how magnificently atmospheric industrial black metal can be if the concept is committed to. There is a far stronger emphasis on the industrial side of the band’s sound as opposed to extreme metal, so it may not suit the tastes of fans of the genre’s classic sound, but this allows for a more immersive and hypnotic feel that still has a dense and grating edge to it that certainly wouldn’t have been there if this had been crafted in a more traditional black metal style. The fact that this is the band’s fourth album in as many years is a testament to how well oiled of a machine DUSK are at this point in their career, and it’s clear that they won’t be running out of ideas any time soon.
Rating: 8/10
Industrie is out now via self-release.
Like DUSK on Facebook.