Dusk of Delusion – Try Your Freedom

Band: DUSK OF DELUSION
Country: France
Title: Try Your Freedom
Label: Fantai’Zic
Year: 2023
Style: Modern Metal

Review:
I have no idea how come this band is not more popular, I guess they don’t play live that much, or simply they haven’t had their break yet, but it’s coming, I’m sure if they’ll continue in the same manner they worked so far, they’ll get their break. And I say this because whenever I get a new material of theirs I’m always sure of two things: I’ll get a captivating new story (read concept), and I’ll get a tasty mix of everything that’s good in Metal, like a good vegetable soup you can’t go wrong with. The new EP “Try Your Freedom” is about the dystopian world of the Corollians, a breed of anthropomorphic organic robots conceived by a russian firm in the year 2050, after a wave of civil war in Europe. First designed as war robots, they will become personal assistants and will even work regular jobs abandoned by humans. A captivating story that comes with as captivating lyrics and individual track stories. This is what the band is excellent at, creating some absolutely movie-like concepts to support their music. The music itself is very varied, each track has its own identity, but at the same time as a whole it’s clear the band has reached their own sound, the EP sounds like a monolith and it makes the band stand out, hence my dilemma about the band not being mainstream yet; they remind me of Rammstein when it comes to the stories they manage to create. The compositions are definitely modern-sounding, but that doesn’t mean you won’t get some full-on traditional Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal or even more extreme sounding Metal here and there, there’s a place for everything here, and at the same time there’s a lot of melody, even some symphonic touches. If you’re looking for a modern band with a good depth to it, with seasoned musicians that know how to create complex and professional music, this band is an easy choice. This EP is released in form of a 6 panel digisleeve featuring all lyrics (all in English). Oh, and as a small trivia: the 4th track, “Bloks” features a small solo that’s 100% the Game of Thrones soundtrack, a show that I’m sure is a huge inspiration for the band.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8.5/10

Contact:
duskofdelusion.com
fantaizic.fr

Dusk of Delusion – Try Your Freedom

Please tell us a few words about the new release, about the music on it as a whole or a few words on each track in part. How are you happy with the final release?
So this EP is the continuity of CO.RO.SYS. As we write CO.RO.SYS, we realized that a single album wouldn’t be able to contain all our ideas. So we put some of it apart to be released one year after. We also tried new musical features and we wanted to work this album by our own to have a very special touch for the final sound. The result is stunning. Honestly we couldn’t have dreamed of anything better.

How would you describe/label the music on it? Does it sounds like anything we might have heard before?
This is definitely DoD’s. Everyone can find what we put on our previous releases. But as we like to add something special each time, there are some novelty. This could be labeled as modern metal. We don’t have better to describe it. There are touches of metalcore as well as heavy and thrash.

Where was it recorded and how much time did it take you to record it? Any interesting stories from the recording/producing the material?
We recorded it at home as we have the chance to own the material to do so. Natan, our drummer, took care of the mix and he’s succeeded marvelously in making us a sound that’s heavy and powerful. Every songs were written for at least one year but we choose to rewrite some part cause we welcomed a new rhythmic guitarist in the process and and we wanted him to make his guitar parts his own, as well as the few backing vocals he sings in the songs.

What can you tell us about the cover artwork? Is there a link between the artwork and the lyrics? What are the topics of your lyrics?
Cover artwork has a interesting story. We’re very interested in the AI phenomenon and the place it is taking or may take in the future. As the theme of the EP is very futuristic, we decided to take a chance with an AI to create the cover. Frankly, we were blown away. I’m sure there are plenty of negative things to be said about AIs, and plenty of caution to be exercised to keep professionals in their place, but in this case, it was the right choice for us. The cover refers to the song Floating Blossoms, with a homeless corollarian waiting to die in front of the posters advertising his fellow creatures.

What do you expect to gain through this release? What are the band’s aims at the moment?
This release is an intermediate step for the future of the group. We wanted to extend the universe we’ve written for CO.RO.SYS, and frankly it’s not impossible that each of our future albums will be accompanied by an EP following it, to continue the “war effort”. The future already looks bright for Dusk, with new live shows in the very near future and, above all, a future album that we’re starting to write.

Is there a special format the material is released in? Or is it released in multiple formats? How many copies were pressed?
We’ve always enjoyed releasing our albums and EPs in physical format, and will continue to do so in the future. The digital format is always interesting and offers a directness to the music that many people appreciate, but for me, one can’t go without the other. There won’t be any vinyl releases for the EP. That may come one day, but for the moment it’s not relevant. To answer your last question, the EP is a very limited edition, since we only pressed 200 copies, almost half of which have already gone out.

Where and how will you promote this new release?
In addition to the interviews and reviews we enjoy reading and relaying, the album will be promoted live, as always! We have a series of concerts in Lorraine, the first of which took place just a few hours after I wrote these lines ;-). We’ll also be visiting Luxembourg in January for the first time, and we’re starting to get booked on a number of summer festivals.

Where can we order it from?
The best way to get it is live on our merchandising stands, but you can also buy the EP on our bandcamp: https://duskofdelusion.bandcamp.com/

Answers by Ben (voc.) – December 2023

Dusk of Delusion

Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Dusk of Delusion is a kind of a “superband” form Lorraine, created by guitarist Matthieu Morand and Bass player Julien Skorka with the idea of a music powerful and direct, suitable for live. All of the members are part of previous bands (Akroma, Elvaron, Benighted Soul, Redline, Symakia, La Horde, …) The band was created in 2016 and 5 releases were launched since then. 3 albums : (F)UNFAIR, Watch Your Six and COrollarian RObotic SYStem, and 2 Eps : World at War and Try Your Freedom. To promote those babies, the band has also played a bit less of 100 shows.

How would you describe your style? Which bands influenced your music?
In the beginning we called ourselves a nu-metal band. Actually, this label is not the best for us anymore. I like to say that we’re the bastard son of Slipknot and Avenged Sevenfold. Our music is full of soli, technical guitars but it also has a powerful drum and bass section that can be related to our nu-metal first loves. As for my singing, I hear a lot in several reviews that it’s kind of unheard before. I try to put as many kind of vocals as I can and many times the songs goes from clean vocals to fry with a touch of scream and growl.

Why should a metalhead buy your demos/albums?
I hope that no one should but they will want to ahaha. Seriously, we manage to develop a whole brand new universe in every albums. Each one are conceptual, (F)UNFAIR talked about our society watched by the prism of an XIXth century fair. Watch Your Six are a bit more personal with stories of women of different countries and men during WWI and the feelings they might have passing through this terrible era of our history. The last album, Corollarian Robotic SYStem is the most ambitious as we created a dystopic future where androids and humans walk the earth and try to cohabitate.

What have you released so far and how were your releases received by the public/media?
As I said, we released 3 albums and 2 EPs. They all were well received by the professionals. Especially CO.RO.SYS which was reviewed by critics around Europe. I like to think that we evolve for each album we release and reviews tend to say so. It’s for the best cause we still have many things to say !

Do you play live as well? How’s your live activity so far?
Live is may be the most important for Dusk of Delusion. We created the band for that purpose. Less than 3 months after its creation, the band was ready to go live on stage. This first show was an opening for Blazing War Machine with drummer Franky Costanza. We also touring in France and Belgium on two occasion, each time discovering beautiful peoples and venues. We finally have the exclusive chance to be opening for Mass Hysteria in our hometown, that was kind of a consecration. Now we want to aim to festivals with the Hellfest, Wacken, Grasspop or Motocultor as main goals.

What should labels/zines/promoters know about your band? Why should they be interested in it?
I hope they will enter our universes. Plural cause we have many of them, each of them is worth the interest. We like to see music as a part of a big picture and every release is influenced by movies, novels, musics from other styles, … etc. We developed our songs not only for them to be listened but also as a part of story that we invent and write. For example, CO.RO.SYS and Try Your Freedom are part of the same universe that we describe in a short novel, available on our website, wich set bases for this dystopic future we sing about in songs.

What plans do you have for the near future as a band?
The future is yet to write ! Dusk of Delusion is far from over. Actually, we never stop writing and composing, we already begin the creation of the newt album. I can’t say too many things for now but once again, we change all to open a brand new story, unrelated to the previous we write.

Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
All of our albums and Eps are available on the streaming platform we all know. Name one, you probably will find DoD on it. Merchandising is sell in our bandcamp but can also be find on tour to have shirts or cds signed by the band.

December 2023

Dusk of Delusion – COrollarian RObotic SYStem [CO.RO.SYS]

Band: DUSK OF DELUSION
Country: France
Title: COrollarian RObotic SYStem [CO.RO.SYS]
Label: Metal East
Year: 2022
Style: Cinematic Metal

Review:
Man this is a hard-working band! Almost every new year they hit the scene with a new album, but beside being so productive music-wise they also construct actual stories and concepts around their albums to a point I’d say their music could be labeled as Cinematic Modern Metal and you’ll see why. After an experience at the circus on the first album, being thrown straight into the World War I battle on the second album and the following EP, Dusk of Delusion have come up with a totally new and different concept for their third full-length: a dystopian story happening in the not so distant 2077 where robots (here “corollarians”) inhabit the Earth, a gathering of stories that made me think of a mix between Orwell’s “1984” book and movies like “I, Robot”, “Matrix” or “Terminator”, so from the concept / story point of view this new album by Dusk of Delusion is absolutely mesmerizing, very well thought, well explained and above all very expressive (and impressive I might add), but let’s see how the music is. And here I have to say after playing all the band’s material before, this one is hands down their best effort and a little masterpiece on its own! Already the third track, “The Snap”, made me stop and replay it that’s how much I liked it, but there are a lot of good moments, many surprises, a masterful balance between melody and aggression, impressive technical skills display, wow, I’m amazed to a point I can’t say if this is as good as I think it to be, or if it just perfectly clicked with my tastes. There’s versatility and vastness, deep emotions, carefully built structures, originality, I’d label it a mix of: Progressive Metal, Heavy Power Metal, Groove Metal, Modern Metal, even touches of Extreme Metal, and whatnot, if you allow me, it’s Cinematic Metal. How this band is not in the forefront of French Metal music is beyond me, but I’d warmly recommend it to you if you like your Metal complete with a good story, something like an audio Metal movie. And after the audition, even though it’s not the best here, I still find “The Snap” as my fave, probably it’s the most catchy.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 9.5/10

Contact:
duskofdelusion.com
metaleast.fr