The way of all flesh
-- Dudsekop --
01/02/2023
Stijn Daneels
Album genres:
| ■ | Black metal |
Album artists:
| ■ | Nico Degroote | Bass |
| ■ | Burt Hillemong | Drums |
| ■ | Josh Fury | Vocals, guitars |
| ■ | Wouter Vandaele | Guitars |
| ■ | Bjorn Bossu | Vocals |
Review written by Glenn Schrijvers.
The intro
Dudsekop is back after a demolishing debut album
‘Liksems’ last year. For those who are not familiar with the band Joost Noyelle
beter known as Josh Fury (King Hiss/Congress and Liar) started a project with
Burt Hillemong (ex-Liar/After All) during the Covid pandemic at studio Scampi.
The result was the debut album ‘Liksems’ and the lyrics are in a West-Flemish
dialect, even the band's name is based on a West-Flemish word. Dudsekop means human skull. They formed a complete
line-up with adding Nico Degroote, Wouter Vandaele and Bjorn
Bossu. There also be a second album at the end of 2023 but for the moment, Dudsekop has released a new EP called 'Plukkevort' on online streaming platforms. The intention for this 'Plukkevort' EP is to release a track from this EP every 6 weeks and while the EP's title track is already available for you all to listen to, we already had the honor to check out 2 more songs that will be released in the near future.
The EP itself
But let's start with the EP's title track ‘Plukkevort,’ which you can check out on all streaming platforms and at the end of this review. The song wastes no time
and starts raging hell right from the start with ear-crushing blast beats, intense
riffs and both screeches and clean, metalcore inspired vocals. Furthermore, behind all this mayhem there's a lot of melody to be heard. After an fast epic solo you can catch a breath and
enjoy a doom ending with a twist of howling and screaming vocals to end this ravaging
journey of ROT (Plukkevort means extremely rotten in the West-Flemish dialect).
Next up is ‘Corbiaar’ which means hearse. so from
rotting to death on wheels, can Dudsekop become even darker and more morbid in this song? The answer is yes! It starts off sludgy
with grimy soiled vocals then Josh Fury steps in with his soothing yet end of
the world howl. It literally gives me shivers down my spine but suddenly the pase
intensifies with blast beats and dark riffs and maniacal laughter! I especially like
the phrase ‘Hijl de weireld ligt up stervn’ (The whole world is dying). The
song ends in agony with the words ‘Kun doadgoan vo twij’ (I can die for two).
The last song is ‘ ‘n ofgrond’ (An Abyss) which brings us
to the end of this new Dudsekop journey for now so it's time to sleep with the worms! This track begins with a dark storm of blast beats, verocious riffs, atrocious vocals soaked in the darkest
filth that human kind has to offer. Then the storm lies down to make place for an
acoustic moment with Scandinavian-inspired chants in West-Flemish and ending with
acoustic lines to rest in the abyss. In peace.
The verdict
Dudsekop shows us yet again that their West-Flemish
black metal fury is far from over! This EP makes me beg for more so I'm excited for the next
album. Dudsekop's sound has become more aggressive, more melodic, darker and yet bizarrely soothing underneath the morbid atmosphere. Not to mention their West-Flemish dialect fits very well for a lot of shreeking, chanting and howling! Dudsekop's 'Plukkevort' EP is a short but grim journey from slowly but surely decaying inside the grave only for one day to be transported to the final destination and eventually resting among the maggots as they feast on your remaining flesh, it gave me chills.
With a band like this one, I genuinely believe Belgium is slowly becoming the new Norway, my fellow shredders.
If you like your black metal old-school with spices of doom & metalcore topped off with a truly morbid atmosphere (and West-Flemish screams) then Dudsekop
will give you the serotine you require! This is for fans of Mystic Circle,
Amenra, Abrahamic Liars and Verwilderd.
The score
85/100