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On reflection, I rather liked Dusk's last album, the victoriously tortured In Eternal Death, and so I decided to give some of their back catalogue a shot. First album that came to my attention was 2005's somewhat noteworthy opus The Darksoul's Scream, and while it's no masterpiece, it'll be more palatable to the fussy Black Metal fan, having more in common with the heroes of the second wave than the band's later, more symphonic work.

The Darksoul's Scream shares a lot with the early work of Burzum, in that what we get is the same kind of off-kilter metal riffs, speed metal drumming, occasional blasting, and shrieks of pure terror that cut up your eardrums. Production-wise this is a dead ringer for Grishnackh's self-titled debut, though there is more hypnotism here, with every track (apart from the acoustic intro – which is real absorbing) pushing the ten minute mark, and therefore being epic in scope. There is a lot of atmosphere in these songs, and the artwork fits it well. You can feel the foliage beneath your feet and smell the woodland rain. On the whole, it isn't breaking any barriers, and it does have the tendency to repeat itself in order to create a feeling of grandeur, something Summoning do well, but Dusk sadly don't.

Certainly an overlooked band in the Black Metal scene, these Hungarians deserve some attention if you like it raw but beautiful, tormented but tranquil.