Review by Greg on June 5, 2026.

Extreme thrashers Desolus have seen some good reception in the endlessly fertile retro-thrash scene, specifically its fringe devoted to building shrines to early Kreator. One look at "System Shock's" artwork and it would have been naive to expect something different, after all. But now, after the addition of a fourth member, their second full-length "Dwellers Of The Twilight Void" seems to hint towards darker territories, marking a clear departure in aesthetics. Does it translate into the music as well?

Well, not a lot, actually. Desolus' main source of inspiration is the first couple of albums from Mille Petrozza and friends, albeit filtered through the technical advancements made in the decades that have passed since. As such, they cannot escape the same issues that hold back most bands that try to outperform "Pleasure to Kill" in one way or another, like, say, Behead or Mayhemic from Chile. You've got barbaric thrash metal constantly bordering on something more bloodthirsty, you've got a total dead ringer for Petrozza on vocals churning out an unhealthy amount of words per second, you've got your drumming (courtesy of the new member, Djiboutian powerhouse drummer Bilel Dougsiyeh) fervently waiting for every next chance to launch itself into the highest tempo it's physically capable of... and, when all is said and done, they always forget the key ingredient that made those classic albums... well, classic – even in spite of some of the worst leadwork ever put to tape. And no, the reason isn't just that they were the first of their kind, although that certainly helped as well. No, I bet that you still remember many of those songs, forty years later. Desolus, on the other hand, fall into the same ol' pitfall of... being just not very interesting.

Desolus even go the extra mile with that, having two vocalists sharing their time behind the mic. Apart from the Petrozza impersonator, the other one is a more standard shrieker, who also lets out a couple of falsettos every now and then. About those... the main takeaway from my first listen were those dreadful attempts at it, at times reminding me of Fastkill, or maybe the otherwise extremely solid Chinese blackened speedsters Demonslaught 666, but even worse. Luckily they only appear in two or three songs, but it was enough to taint my perception of the whole album. Honestly, I'm still wondering why this has become such a staple of retro thrash, as it can get annoying pretty quickly. Back when Tom Araya started doing it, he sounded utterly feral and made it a plus of his performances – while many now just sound absolutely... limp. Not to mention strident, often. They sure elicited some rage from me, but mostly the kind that makes you pull your best Clint Eastwood scowl. If it sounds like you're being pierced in the balls with a red-hot needle, it's not good, and this is exactly the case. 'Trespass the Threshold' is painful to listen to for this very reason. Also, circling back to the leadwork, it's not like it's much better here – squealy, atonal shredding without much thought put into it, often coinciding with the songs getting back to full speed.

When all these terribly distracting features aren't happening, "Dwellers Of The Twilight Void" has its solid moments. 'The Portal' might be the two-hundredth one-and-a-half-minute intro I've heard in recent years, and yet I found its transition to the title-track particularly successful, reminding me of 'Viral Exogence' by Hellwitch (another band that's similar in essence, although more on the technical end), where the sound effect in its coda gets gradually repeated more and more until finally morphing into the buzzsawing main riff. The obvious side effect of the relentless pace that follows is that, paradoxically, the slower moments end up standing out – the final shout in 'The Pact (Sealed In Blood)', followed by a rare slower solo, or 'Visages Of Death' that goes the same route with a short bass solo on top. Regrettably, both still end with a fadeout just when they sounded like they were about to enter their most enthralling sections. 'Threading the Atom' is also the only predominantly midtempo number, but also the album's nadir, plagued with annoying quasi-spoken raspy vocals and featuring some uninspiring, repetitive riffs cobbled together in the middle.

Conversely, 'Woman Of Infernal Beauty' is the album's true outlier, and consequently the song I enjoyed the most, thanks to its creative drum parts in the almost speed-ish verses, which logically get demolished by the usual brutal accelerations, but it's so cool I can get behind the horrible falsetto shrieks. 'Primordial Evil' is also solid, with the only refrain sticking in your mind, not surprisingly since it just consists of the song title. 'Nefarious Dominion' is just more of the same jumbled mess, especially after the Slayer cover ('Show No Mercy') appearing out of nowhere – a weird choice, and likely also a counter-productive one, considering the less is more, primordial approach of what is THE seminal thrash metal album highlighting the deficiencies of the rest of the tracklist. In recent years, I've formed the opinion that cover songs should be confined as bonus tracks, and more generally speaking I have a hard time expecting them to fit when sandwiched between original songs. There are exceptions, as with every rule, but this was not one of them.

Honestly, "Dwellers Of The Twilight Void" is a perfect example of why sometimes you just can't recapture lightning in a bottle. I can't rule out the possibility that I'm just getting too old for my liking, but the truth is, there hasn't been a single listen when I didn't zone out halfway through and wasn't tempted to put on something else. Not bad, just frustrating.

Rating: 6.7 out of 10