Review Summary: Dimscûa's debut EP is an absolutely staggering opening statement that leaves you reeling at its emotional impact.
There's a rare thrill in discovering a band at the very beginning of their journey- when their catalogue is still small, yet the quality is so striking that you instinctively know they’re destined for something greater, and you were fortunate enough to witness it from the start. There’s something powerful about following their transformation in real time from fledgling newcomers to established artists and these bands are those where it’s your god given responsibility to force feed that talent down as many throats as possible.
So, open wide.
Emerging from the UK’s abundant post-metal underground, this debut EP by Berkshire’s Dimscûa cuts a space between the sombre grandeur of Cult of Luna and the spiritual agony of Amenra. But what sets Dimscûa apart, aside from their infancy as a band, is their unflinching emotional honesty: this is tangible grief, unembellished and unrestrained.
Across four monolithic tracks, the band guides you through soundscapes of agonising sorrow, where anguished vocals and intimidating riffs crumble and disintegrate under their emotional weight. Elder Bairn immediately sets the tone with scabrous screams dragging over a daunting atmosphere. Deliberate, aching riffs and a titanic rhythm draw you deeper into their tense atmosphere before exploding into an absolutely devastating crescendo. As the riffs collapse like a tidal wave on an innocent crew in a storm, the screams crack in anguish. In one fell plunge, Dimscûa have absolutely nailed how to convey pain through music: authenticity. The result is devastating.
The rest of the EP follows in suit. Unlocking suppressed emotions fear, guilt, rage, sorrow and just about everything you can experience during loss. There’s an elasticity to the rhythm section in The Dust Eater which allows the music to fill any empty spaces of silence and create that larger than life sound which evokes the feeling of being emotionally overwhelmed. An abundance raw humanness is expressed in the aptly named Existence (Futility) where the swelling melodies break down, rebuild and breakdown again, like trying to fight against grief, failing, and trying find the strength to recover while life beats you down over again. During the (again) aptly named “On Being and Nothingness”, Dimscûa lull you into a catatonic state where the only thing audible is lingering chords and seething whispers. By the final closing moments of the track and the EP, you start to feel the enveloping embrace of the world opening up beneath you.
Call it cheesy or journalistic crap but Dimscûa transforms personal tragedy into profound artistic expression, creating a sound that resonates with anyone willing to face the rawness of existence. With only 32 minutes of music to their name, they can already stand shoulder to shoulder with the best the genre has to offer. A sensational statement.
