APHOTIC / DUSK - To Find New Darkness / The Slumber (CD)

Bringing together two distinct yet intertwined entities, To Find New Darkness / The Slumber serves as both a swan song and a revelation. This split release unearths Dusk’s final recordings—an essential offering of their mournful, atmospheric death/doom—alongside the spectral evolution of Aphotic, the band formed in Dusk’s wake. Though each half of the album carves its own path, together they create a journey through shadowed corridors of despair and introspection.

Aphotic’s side, To Find New Darkness, ventures into a realm where dissonance and melody coexist in eerie harmony. Their brand of doom is hypnotic, built on ominous keys, clean guitar passages, and a drumming style that lends weight to the disjointed, unsettling atmosphere. There’s a lingering sense of unease, a deliberate pacing that revels in the spaces between each note. The vocals, while less guttural than Dusk’s, still carry a foreboding presence, as if whispering from the void. The band crafts an approach that bridges melancholic beauty with the cold grip of isolation, making for a listening experience that is both meditative and unnerving.

On the flip side, Dusk’s The Slumber is a crushing reminder of why they remain one of death/doom’s most overlooked titans. This final recording showcases their ability to weave vast soundscapes, from suffocating heaviness to haunting serenity. Tracks unfold like funeral processions, moving between eerie clean sections and suffocating walls of distortion. Chad’s vocals resonate like the voice of an ancient specter, guiding the listener through sorrow-laden melodies and tectonic riffs that seem to stretch time itself. While their full-length Majestic Thou in Ruin leaned more into its doom tendencies, The Slumber explores new depths of somber reflection, hinting at what could have been had Dusk continued.

Taken as a whole, To Find New Darkness / The Slumber is more than a split—it’s a dialogue between past and present, a testament to a group of musicians who reshaped and redefined their sound across time. Dusk’s side is a poignant farewell, a closing chapter filled with all the elements that made them so captivating. Aphotic, in turn, offers a glimpse into the continuation of that legacy, albeit with a different voice. Whether one is drawn to the funereal majesty of Dusk or the ghostly reverberations of Aphotic, this release stands as a remarkable document of two bands intertwined in darkness.