Band:	Dusk
Album:	Dissolve Into Ash
Style:	Death doom metal
Release date:	December 18, 2023
A review by:	RaduP

01. Beacon Obscured
02. The Dim Divide
03. Ancient Passage
04. Libations Offered
05. The Promise Passed
06. Shrouded In Mist
07. Dormant Form
08. An Aerial View

There's still something quite endearing about bands that only managed to release one album, bands that never really got the chance to make it but whose one album might get a cult classic status. Sometimes, they get a second lease of life.

Back in the day, I made a list of "one-album metal wonders", and even though I should update it eventually after spotting at least two instances where a band has since released or scheduled the release of a new album, it is still interesting to see how many of the albums that were in this situation have since gained cult status. Dusk's ...Majestic Thou In Ruin is sadly not as talked about as albums in similar situations from Disembowelment or Thergothon, even with two stellar reviews we had of their old stuff, and you may be excused for not being familiar with the band considering how many bands with the same name there are, including one that released an album this year. Maybe having a new album out would help Dusk's course.

Well this isn't exactly the first new Dusk release since their reunion, and just like ...Majestic Thou In Ruin was preceded by an EP, Dissolve Into Ash was preceded by the Withdraw EP back in 2018. And that EP is a pretty good blueprint for what Dusk would do on Dissolve Into Ash, especially with pretty much the same lineup as that EP, a lineup that already had three out of the four members being originals. Considering the band having been around since the classic times while also not being on a major label, it's a blurred line between sounding anachronistic as if a relic of the past in a good way or in a bad way. It's not hard to guess what their death doom take sounds like, but Dusk have their own particularities nonetheless.

The beauty and the beast approach is something that has been in Dusk's music since their their first album, but it feels like the "beauty" vocals courtesy of Dana Ignarski do take a larger chunk of their sound, bringing them even closer to something like Draconian. The "beast" side of that is still the one I find the most compelling, with Steve Crane's vocals being quite versatile and ravishing for the style instead of something more akin to the one-note growl that seems to be the usual. The riffing often finds a pretty sweet spot between the mournful doom and the heavier death adjacent side, but there are still far too many mid-paced moments that feel like they drag along without offering that much excitement, and I think the fault in that lies party with the production making things sound more dull than they should.

I am at a bit of a loss with Dissolve Into Ash. There are things about it I really appreciate, but its drawbacks make me feel too ambivalent towards it and I don't think I would have given it this much attention if it wasn't somehow tied to that one list of one-album bands I made. I am keeping my hopes up that this second lease of life will let Dusk get more attention both for their original material getting an even bigger cult status and for the prospect of more new material with hopefully an even bigger production budget.