One Listen Review
1st Listen 27 July 24
Reviewed 27 July 24
Duskwalker – Underground Forever
Black Lion Records
Released 26 July 24
I once crossed the bridge from the USA into Niagara Falls in Canada for a beer. True story that! Alas, it was way before Duskwalker formed and definitely before they released their 3rd album, Underground Forever.
Underground Forever is the Death Metal album you would make your thrash or groove metal loving friends listen to so that they ‘got’ the death metal genre. Duskwalker have managed to blend 10 tracks of death metal with a myriad of thrash, groove and basic heavy metal riffs and, to be perfectly honest, they have absolutely nailed it.
What we are presented with is 10 songs delivering big fuck-off juicy riffs. These riffs remind you have so many other bands, that it is difficult to keep count. You have Carcass riffs, Cannibal Corpse riffs, Judas Priest riffs, Pantera riffs – the list goes on. Somehow, Duskwalker have managed to meld these into their own sound, providing an album that brings the listener joy!
The riffs go on for days, John Robinson also complements these with a handful of blistering solos that utterly fit the track. ‘The Loss’ is the first with a
noticeable solo. John Neadow controls everything in the engine room, with his bass accompanied by a wrecking crew of a drummer, Cale Costello.Perhaps the standout is the vocalist, Joey Scaringi, who somehow manages to do carry out passable impersonations of CorpsegrinderFisher as well as Jeff Walker quite often in the same song. He has a mesmeric deep growl as well as an ability to spit out lyrics with unhinged aggression. Check out ‘Posing Corpses’ where he criticises a certain type of social media user for example.
Perhaps the best track on the album is, ‘City on a Cemetery’, where Duskwalker criticises their home town of Niagara Falls for essentially forgetting its past in search of the almighty tourist dollar. I can attest to the gaudy nature of the neon flashing lights dominating the city showcased within the track. The song itself has the ‘Corpsegrinder’ vocal style with a seriously chunky riff that gets the head nodding with satisfaction.
Duskwalker have managed to create an album that sounds like other bands without actually sounding like other bands. This is a magnificent feat that I am not quite sure how they carried it off.
I urge you to check this out so you can wallow in the underground forever!
The DevilsHorns 
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