Inverloch - Dusk | Subside
19 years ago, Australia’s Disembowelment (or, as the band preferred to capitalize it, diSEMBOWELMENT) put one album out and then disappeared. 18 years ago, a 15-year old freshmen in high school purchased that album. That album was Transcendence Into the Peripheral, that freshmen was me, and I still pull that son of a bitch out once or twice a year (specifically to hear “Your Prophetic Throne of Ivory,” one of the greatest songs ever written regardless of genre or era). Nearly two decades… to say it has stood the test of time is a vast understatement, and as their sole full-length release, it pretty much had to. Disembowelment were never seen nor heard from again… until now! Okay… technically it’s only half of Disembowelment (drummer Paul Mazziotta and guitarist Matthew Skarajew), but to call this EP anticipated is like saying Belladonna is a moderately attractive woman. In 2004, Skarajew and Mazziotta began jamming the old stuff again under the name d.USK. When they decided to pen new tunes, they changed the name to Inverloch and the three cuts that comprise Dusk | Subside is our first glimpse into this new chapter. Well… I know it’s unfair to judge any band by the timeless masterpiece standards of Transcendence, but in this case it’s hard not to. These songs quite frankly don’t come close enough. The spirit and vibe of Disembowelment is definitely alive and well here, but the material itself leaves much to be desired in terms of memorability. “Within Frozen Beauty” is a dark, menacing Death Metal jam bookended by quiet breezes of ascension and descension, “The Menin Road” is a crushing Doom hymn revisited by the delicate beauty and spacious ambience of those clean guitar melodies, and “Shadows of the Flame” successfully meshes all of the above. The trouble is none of it sticks. Not even after the ridiculous amount of times I listened to it that first night, and that next day, or that following night, etc. I realize instant euphoria is a tall order —I couldn’t even fathom expectations this high— but it’s a bar they set for themselves. I do think they’ll reach it in time, as they effortlessly channel the magical feeling of old here, or at least I hope so. Then again, all hope is pain.
(Note: d.USK performed Transcendence in its entirety at Roadburn Festival this year! Can you say DVD? p.LEASE??)
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