Throughout the dawn of time, many bands who are into extreme metal can often find ways to be innovative, creative and just downright create endless ideas to make the genre standout. Meet Distant, a six piece international outfit from Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Bratislava, Slovakia who’s name kept spreading all over my social medias and talked great things about the music. It wasn’t until the end of 2020 when I discovered this band after unleashing their EP Dawn Of Corruption which took their sound, styled melodies and approach to whole new level. This time, we have the follow-up to the band’s second EP titled Dusk Of Anguish and it’s the continuation saga of the Tyrannotophia universe if you know the lyrical content and ideologies the band is known for.
Musically, Distant is a cross hybrid of Ingested, Suicide Silence, Black Tongue, Goremageddon era of Aborted and Pathology but in a doomy, claustrophobic, darkened, frightening and terrorizing style of slam, deathcore, beatdown, downtempo and very little traces of death metal sprinkled here and there. Lyrically, Dusk Of Anguish is a sequel to the Dawn Of Corruption album where it left off and a prequel to Tyrannotophia which I don’t want to spoil the context of the story because you need to read and deciphering the lyrics for yourself. But however the music, artwork and lore on this EP is leaps and bounds heavier, tormented, punishing and mesmerizing to the point I got my hands and feet strapped into a world filled with darkness, atmosphere and isolation where you have to appreciate the quality and presentation this record demonstrated us surely met my expectations and I hope you do too.
Now, after giving the album multiple listens not only I’m a sucker for music feeling a sense of depravity and bludgeoning for the Deathcore, Beatdown and Slam community, but Distant to me are one of the absolute best bands for the Unique Leader Records roster as their compositions, consistency and craftsmanship are astonishing, crafted extremely well and I can safely say I was impressed with how addictive and sometimes catchy this record truly became. I would say songs like Cryogenesis, Ravka and the title track Dusk Of Anguish have unique deathcore structures well as the musicianship and overall musicality naturally matured and this is a outstanding decision for the members from Distant simply due to the fact it makes them feel like they are really putting some real effort into writing, and making the songs feel consistent at best.
Tempo variations from the guitars, bass and drums are extremely fluent and organically appropriate to bring relentless, aggressive and providing wonderful signatures to the forefront. From the headbanging Invidious which demonstrates catchy riffs, enjoyable vocals, insane drumming and the production values is absolutely top notch as the mixing doesn’t become overly repetitive but it combines some Pathology influenced melodies while the atmosphere brings a more presentable and understandable approach for the music is something to appreciate. There’s still some slam elements thrown into the mixtures but rather keeping the dynamism and progression stays intact plays a unadulterated and violent role of how sickening these songs come to life makes you feel claustrophobic and frightening. Dusk Of Anguish is everything you want for a deathcore, slam, downtempo and beatdown record if you want your music heavier, nastier and atmospheric at times, then you shouldn’t pass this up, period.
Overall Score: 9.0/10
Review by Jake Butler
