• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Hungary's one-man band Dusk leaves no question as to the purpose of its music; to create a spiritual journey uncovering the path to Satan. According to the promotional material (I had never heard them prior to hearing this album) Dusk have abandoned the traditional Black Metal of their previous efforts for a more ritualistic and shamanistic approach to their music on Book of Satan. I cannot deny that Book of Satan hits some of those goals. On the whole, however, it is difficult to sit through.

Lone member Shadow goes for a low, rumbling murmur, reminiscent of chanting Buddhist monks (for those not familiar, the sound is not unlike a bunch of frogs continuously belching). Like it or hate it, the sound is creepy and with the slow, rhythmic drums that whole "shamanistic" angle is covered quite well. Musically, keyboards dominate the backing fuzzy guitars, neither playing but a few riffs here and there. Most of Book of Satan is made up of laboriously repeated chords that drone on endlessly. They vary little from song to song making the sequencing irrelevant. The album could be six songs or one song in six parts. The production is flat and lifeless and everything sounds oddly far away. The lyrics, most likely unintelligible anyway, are hindered even further by the overall sound.

I'm sure Shadow is sincere in his beliefs and if you are sympathetic to them you might find Dusk's latest interesting. For most, though, Book of Satan is dull and ponderous.