Album Review: The Duskfall – Source (Black Lotus)

Source is the second album by Swedish melodic death metal band The Duskfall and was released in December 2003 on Black Lotus Records. I came across this by pure chance when my trusty music player suggested it to me while I listened to Nightrage (see my review of Nightrage’s Insidious for more info). I really like Insidious so was more than happy to give this a go and see just how similar, if at all, the two albums were.

Any bands in any music styles that operate in the same genre are going to have similarities and that is why they are labelled with a genre in the first place. Not every band can pull it off though and I am pleased to say that The Duskfall’s Source is a very fine effort.

The album itself is a relatively short affair clocking in at less than 34 minutes spread over 8 tracks.

Being a short album, there is no time for messing around so without an intro, interlude or outro, the album kicks off with the first track, Case Closed which is captures the essentials of melodic death metal perfectly with offbeat drumming, raspy powerful vocals, melodic guitars and a catchy chorus which starts with a sudden change of pace from the verses.  Striving To Have Nothing is a more rhythmic affair which shows a bit of versatility from the band and has some awesome riff work running throughout it along with a really enjoyable guitar solo. The Grand Scheme raises the aggression level a bit and although it is probably the weakest song on the album, is still a decent song in itself and is just unlucky to be caught up on an album with many excellent tracks. The title track, Source, comes next and is a real stand out track. It feels a little darker than the previous tracks with a nice pace to it and a tidy little guitar solo at the end.

The fifth track, Not A Good Sign, has elements of thrash littered throughout the verses with a more melodic chorus and another catchy solo. Guidance, the longest track on the album at nearly 6 minutes, starts straight off with a headbang inducing riff and keeps your interest throughout. The vocals really stand out on this track with plenty of assistance coming from the other band members and I think this is probably my favourite song on the album. Lead Astray follows next and raises the pace and aggression some more and has some really deep and dark guitar tones playing alongside the thrashy drums. The last song, The Destroyer, which is only two and a half minutes long sounds a little different to the rest of the album as it sounds more like a straight thrash metal song then a melodic death metal one but despite that, it is still a solid song that would be brutal in a mosh pit and as so, is probably a fitting place to end the album.

A really enjoyable, if a little short, album with some truly awesome stand out tracks and while it isn’t ground breaking or genre defining, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. This is, quite simply, a really solid melodic death metal album. Definitely worth a listen and then a few repeats. One I highly recommend.