Band:	Dirge (IND)
Album:	Dirge
Style:	Sludge metal
Release date:	March 2023

01. Condemned
02. Malignant
03. Grief
04. Hollow


I’ll be honest, the first moment in which I saw a new album from a post-metal band called Dirge had been released and then found out that it wasn’t a shock reunion of the French band Dirge, I was somewhat disappointed. However, having listened to Dirge, it turns out Dirge (IND) are formidable in their own way.

I’ve talked before about my skepticism over self-titled releases that aren’t debuts; a sophomore release is still early enough in one’s journey that it can still make some sense, but it does give the impression that the band are saying ‘the debut was a trial run, this is what we’re really about’. Perhaps this is intentional by Dirge (IND), who are releasing this record after almost a decade of existence, as there have been some notable changes in the band’s sound since 2018’s debut album Ah Puch (funny that I should review this album the day after I review another 2023 sophomore album following up a 2018 debut).

Dirge (IND) aren’t entirely straight post-metal; on the first song, "Condemned", at least, they're arguably closer to a form of sludge doom that spills over from both directions into post-metal. If that makes you think of Ortega, you’re not all that far off; there’s a riff midway into “Condemned” that reminds me quite a bit of a comparable passage in Ortega’s iconic (well, iconic to me at least) song “Crows”. This is still a notable shift from Ah Puch, at which stage Dirge (IND) were still more a doom band than a sludge one. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given my own tastes, I do feel like the change in songwriting focus makes Dirge a more satisfying listen than Ah Puch.

While there is still a notable doominess to the rest of this album album, I do otherwise find myself, on top of Ortega, more inclined to compare Dirge to post-metal bands; for example, the brooding riffing in the latter half of “Condemned” reminds me of some of Cult Of Luna’s gnarlier riffs from their early days, particularly when some atmospheric leads and tremolos are laid on top. Textures are generally well woven on this album; the trudging “Malignant” is slightly ‘standard fare’, but the combination of riffs and atmospheric layers is potent here. Dirge (IND) also get the emotions locked in well, with the ominous malevolence of this song’s first half seamlessly replaced by a sense of longing and distance in the softer second half, in which there’s some really effective cleaner guitar work.

With 4 songs and 40 minutes of music, the band haven’t opted for any short songs, giving them the boon of getting to write long, multi-faceted songs without the album as a whole becoming exhausting. This means that they can ebb and flow in traditional post-metal style across the journey of a song, and no song ebbs or flows as much as “Grief”, a song that dedicates ample time to quiet, contemplative passages, but always has a lumbering riff lurking just around the corner. As with “Malignant”, I do think the execution on this song is a bit too conventional without being exceptional, and there are some slight rough edges to the production, but the song, and the album as a whole, make for a solidly satisfying listen.