Death metal has always managed to capture the ears of many people looking to let loose simply by sitting down and listening to music. DUSKWALKER’S “Underground Forever” does this, and then some. Utilising a host of techniques to create an atmosphere that raises heartbeats to danger levels and alerting people of their feral urges to throw down to some seriously aggressive music this album features a beastly guitar tone that seemingly motivates the songwriters to become riff legends. They do this by forging crushing guitar licks, drawing inspiration from different styles of metal to build a body of work whereby at least one track on the album will resonate with fans of many different genres. The album cover surprisingly leads the listener to think that they will be listening to 80’s thrash metal, and although there are elements of this style throughout the album, there is more variety and a concise method to the madness.  

The first track “Crippled at the Core” introduces the band with an awesome riff coupled with that beautifully rich guitar tone setting the scene for the rest of the listening process. However, around two minutes into this track, you are met with a breakdown and a huge “Briiieeee” (you know what I’m talking about) which instantly puts you into a fight or flight mode and the synchronised bends of the guitars and bass make this section one for the hall of fame wall. The bands willingness to explore slightly different metal styles is shown in “Never Going Back”, a song that showcases their talent in writing classic metal riffs not unlike those of FEARED as well as a talent in fusing this with black metal. The introduction of “City on a Cemetery” doesn’t prepare you for the song to come due to the fact that the verse riff will cause every punter at live events to stomp like a caveman. Further adding to the credibility of the songwriting on this track is the change in mood when you get to the chorus. The evil nature of this part of the song really takes the listener away from the initial attitude of the verse and drops them into a new universe entirely. Following from this a LAMB OF GOD style riff that will take a lot of current listeners back to when they started listening to heavy metal and when you consider the magnificent outro of this song, this track would really suit being renamed “Riff Central”. Straight after this is “Posing Corpses” which starts off with a slower, sludgy riff with a very unusual, but perfectly fitting bass tone for this style. It leads into what you’d absolutely expect from this band here, that is until the ending whereby there is a classic rundown of the guitars leading back into the opening section, and it is masterful. The heaviest song on this track has got to be “Blasted Past Extinction” (and that is really saying something). It has a seriously brutal nature that flows throughout the entire track even though we hear an acoustic guitar midway through. This band really know how to bring brutality to your ears.  

Although “Underground Forever” takes the listener on a ride of different genres, styles and techniques, it’s very much unique unto itself. You know that you are listening to DUSKWALKER here and they very much have the potential to establish themselves at the top of the heavy metal tree.