EMPIRE OF DUST Blend Doom With Hardcore With New Album "From Dust Till Dawn"

Bristol's Empire of Dust [photo: Empire of Dust]

It might have taken a couple of years, but Bristol based doom band EMPIRE OF DUST have finally unleashed their latest album, "From Dust Till Dawn", on to unsuspecting listeners. It's hard to remove any connotations to vampires and desert winds ("Dust", not "dusk"!), but it's clear that the end result is a particularly doom-y labour of love.

A slow, foreboding riff leads the way with opener "Purgatory". Sinister and melodic in equal measure, the track prides itself on the atmosphere created. It's almost impossible to not move your head in time with the breakdown near the end, gradually slowing down but still grabbing you with force.

"One of Many" follows next, one of two tracks clocking in at almost 10 minutes. A slightly faster tempo is introduced, with a rhythm reminiscent of hardcore bands. It's very much bordering on 'stomping angrily' territory, in the best way possible.

The length of the track holds it back a little bit, not entirely helped by the slow nature of the genre. It almost sounds like two different songs blended together, transitioning somewhere around the middle point.

The fast paced sound continues with "Bring Me The Liar", blending thrash rhythm with black metal technicality. Blast beats and downpicked guitars make a blistering combination - if any song were to generate a wall of death, this is the one.

This is also probably the album's most 'straightforward' track, letting the heavy punch be delivered and not overstaying.

Starting any track with a breakdown is a bold choice, which is why "Living Moon" catches the attention straight away. Blistering double kick towards the end makes for an assault on the ears, but boy does it hit hard.

[photo: Empire of Dust]

"Smashed Glass" approaches its longer runtime slightly better, starting with a heavily distorted blend of guitar and synthesiser. It sounds just cult-y enough to warrant a "what the fuck is going on" if you stumbled into it in the middle of a forest.

Bringing the album to a close is "Dungeon". Starting with sounds akin to a ZX Spectrum starting up, the track takes a more conventional turn with the heavy riffage, again blending doom and hardcore effortlessly. The riff around the 02.40 mark hits like a truck, something about the melody scratching the brain in all the right places.

Throughout all of the tracks, it's clear that this a band that are well refined and tight as a unit. The instrumentation is heavy, the vocals are appropriately rough, and the production makes it sound like a band way beyond the 'local' label.

Eight tracks and roughly 50 minutes later, this is a well constructed release, even if a tad on the long side. The album's strengths lie when the band stray from the conventional doom cloth, taking other influences and blending them together - a thrash snare rhythm there, a hardcore riff here - to make their mark on the genre.

"From Dust Till Dawn" is out now [photo: Empire of Dust]

"From Dust Till Dawn" is out NOW on streaming platforms