Dusk – News Updates

Dead Heart Dawning Out Finally

With great pride and joy we announce the release of the new Dusk mini CD modestly titled ‘Dead Heart Dawning’ on the 13th of December 2006. This one is a very special fruit for us all at the Horde of Dusk, since the ones amongst you who have been involved with the bands updates know what the fuck it took for us to take this road again.

This is a self release under my long time slumber loving label ‘Dusk Horde Productions’. The release features the new Dusk lineup and four tracks forged within the infernal fires of Mount Doom. The track titles are ‘When the Mirror Speaks’, ‘Dreaming Gotishya’, ‘Sorrows of the Flesh’& ‘Dead Heart Dawning’

Salute
A big shout and hailing to our fellow comrades who fucking made Dead Heart Dawning possible… namely Shiva (Mighty Drums from the Corridor of Centuries), Subash (You’re the Man!), John and Damien of Truth be Known (You have been the true riders of the storm), Ariffeen (Without your encouragement nothing could have worked). Taimoor, Hussein and Rizwan (May our gathering forever remain), Arieb Azhar (For the power and Support), Sarah and Mahmud (You guys have a bigger part then you think), Sherry (Silent but Violent), Salman Fenriz (Thrash on Brother).

Band of Brothers
Since the new lineup was already announced thirty days ago on our official my space www.myspace.com/duskhorde , I will not make this too official here. I am no longer doing vocals and the Dusk Horde now features Yusri Maha Durjana (Cardiac Necropsy) as the new vocalist. Noxaleem, Aman and Akhter have joined hands with me through the tough times in 2006. Our great friends, who came in as guests on the record as well as the new line up are all stated below.

Yusri Maha Durjana – Vocals
Aman Durrani - Guitar
Babar Sheikh – Bass
Akhter Qayyum – Chants / Percussion
Noxaleem – Violin

Special Guest Appearances

Shiva – Drums on Dreaming Gotishya & Sorrows of the Flesh
Imran – Organs on Dreaming Gotishya / Synthesizers on Dead Heart Dawning
Subash – Vocals on Dead Heart Dawning
John – Additional Rhythm Guitars on Dead Heart Dawning / Lead Guitars on Dreaming Gotishya
Damien – Additional Rhythm Guitars on Dreaming Gotishya
Kamran Autopsy – Drums on Dead Heart Dawning
Arieb Azhar – Spoken & sung words on Sorrows of the Flesh

Sample of the Flesh
A sample of Sorrows of the Flesh from the new Dusk release has just been uploaded onto the official Dusk My Space. Do check it out to get a flavor of the current sound.

September 2006

Absence
With deep sorrow we here at the dusk horde announce the obituary for Mr. Siddique Durrani the father of Dusk axe man Aman Durrani. We offer condolence to all members of the Durrani family.

Resurrection Appearance
Due to complications within the horde and other travel related issues, we sadly announce that Dusk will not be performing at this year’s Resurrection Festival in Mumbai India. Apologies go out to all the metal freaks that somewhat awaited our arrival in India. We sure hope we can make it in April and give you all a headache and a hangover with the new Dusk tracks.

The Dead Hearts
The long awaited Dusk demo for the year of 2006 will finally see the light of the day in later days October. There have been some disturbances in the band formation but with pride we announce that we still remain the dirty old piece of hardened soil that we always were. The demo at this point in time seems to be featuring four tracks in all. One of which will be (as the Dusk tradition has it) an intro to the entire piece.
The demo will mainly cater to record labels, radio stations and of course fanzines, but will also be accessible through the website or postal purchase.

Wacken 2006

Greetings!
Just wanted to share with you all that i have returned ´In One Piece` from this years Wacken Open Air Festival. This surely was a once in a lifetime experience for me, as I had never attended a three day Metal festival ever before in my life.Over 50,000 metal heads in the middle of teh German country side, what more to ask for, you sleep in your tent listening to The Trooper and wake up listening to Transylvanian Hunger…And the bands … Well I really don’t have words to describe what I went through, but in short I had the holiest of moments, for example when the mighty Celtic Frost started with Procreation Of The Wicked, or when David Vincent (Morbid Angel) said ´the sun shines bright over Wacken, but indeed we will always remain Sworn to the Black). Of course not to forget that Morbid Angel played with the classic Domination line up of Vincent, Azagthoth, Sandoval and Mr Eric Rutan.

The Emperor reunion was something totally enchanting... Imagine over 30,000 metal heads singing along to Curse You All Men… I was also among the very few blessed ones to witness one of the first Atheist performances in over 8 years.This was really special (maybe the best), because of the fact that it was on a smaller stage and the band and fans were real close together, and there were only die hard Atheist fans, because of a fucking Soulfly performance happening on the bigger stage…That took care of all the new kids on the block, The mosh pit only featured folks in their thirties and late twenties... hahah

And of course not to mention the line up, featuring Steve Flynn, Kelly and the God of all technical bass playing Sir Tony Choy…Flynn and Choy played the bass and drums solo that i can never imagine any other duo playing ...

Last but not the least, I can say that I saw Motorhead, (the first time in my life) and man were they LOUD! Fuck, that was really a moment in my life there, where Lemmy started the bass line to Ace Of Spades!

So, thanks for reading, as I wanted to share these lines with some of you my dear metal friends... Long Live the brotherhood !
Rock n Roll till Death,

May - June 2006

Belated greetings and apologies for an absence spanning for over a month’s time… during this time of course many things have developed and this time I return to share lots of latest happenings in the Dusk camp.

Resurrecting the Beast

No this is not the latest Dusk song title, since many have dubbed us death metal in every sense of the word, ever since the sound have changed (now finally for fucking good)
Dusk has been confirmed to headline the ‘Resurrection Festival’ in Bombay India on the 1st of October 2006, so you can imagine how fucking excited all of us are regarding the show, also we will be playing a smaller gig in Pune on the 30th of September 2006. For more details regarding the concerts and other bands performing alongside the horde, keep checking out these forbidden pages as well as other websites that will soon in time be announcing the appearance of Dusk.

060606 Recording

I know we are quite far from being a satanic band, but we are after all a death metal band. And when the date came close, it was somehow natural fro us to react in some manner. So we ended up recording on of the three latest tracks titled ‘Dreaming Goatisia’ on 060606. More news about the latest tracks will soon hit the news section.

Contrary Beliefs Out on Epidemie

The Experimental Dusk record titled ‘Contrary Beliefs’ is now finally out on Epidemie Records from Prague. To clear some confusions that are also somehow natural due to so many changing factors in the band in the past year, this is just a one off experimental record that I really felt strongly about doing with a genius friend of mine called Ismail. The sound on Contrary Beliefs is no doubt one of the darkest things Dusk has ever recorded to date, but it is more on the lines of an experiment carried out in the transitional phase of the Dusk horde.

March - April 2006

The Dead Hearts – New Dusk Members

As everyone knows, last time around I had already announced and confirmed that the band had reformed with totally new members. So as, most of you can already see their faces on the website, in individual and collective photographs, they are none other than Aman Durrani (from the Classic metal band ‘Mob Rules’ fame, also later playing with melodic dark metal band ‘Nocturnal Rust’) on Lead and Rhythm Guitar, and our very own Kami Autopsy (from the legendary Death metal monsters ‘Autopsy Gothic’) on Drums and Vocals. And man, am I fucking chuffed with the presence of them fellow warriors. Death and Roll!

Dead Heart Dawning

As I also mentioned that Dusk also recorded a brand new single, of course which is more than important for show casing our regained love for classic death metal. Why Not!?
This is track is called ‘Dead Heart Dawning’ , the first of our series of audio attacks that we will then collectively project upon the legions in the form ofan album due to be recorded and released by the later months of the year. The lyrics for Dead Heart Dawning, will be added soon, and this for all you believers. Play it Loud!

News & Updates December 2005 – February 2006

Hello and welcome once again after about three months of slumber time and inactivity from my side. Not to mention the amount of death threats I had received from the Dusk webmaster Zeeshan Khan during these months. Well so here are some words of what I and Dusk have been up to in the recent past.

We are still a Death Metal band

So, before things start to get complicated with who ever is reading this, I must tell you, that I have NOT abandoned Death Metal in any fucking way. I hope that will be the last thing in my life. As mentioned previously, Dusk is continuing as a Metal band like always. Contrary Beliefs, like the title suggests was something on my mind for a long time. Ismail came along with perfect timing and lo and behold, we made a record together.

Another Finalization Phase

So after many months of blood red working days for the new dusk (experimental) record, I and Ismail finally saw things getting under control. But little did we know what kind of difficulties were going to come our way during the prost production process. Check this out, we mixed the entire fucking record like twice and once again at the studio where we were to master this bitch.

Masters on the Contrary

After much consultation with some local music peers, and of course with my great musical guru Mr. Akhter Qayyum, we finally got dates at the ODS studio, owned by local mastering legend Mr. Omer Qureshi. And finally, by the middle dates of December 2005 we have the final master of ‘Contrary Beliefs’ in our hands. The final sound comes out in a much more technical and layer based manner, than I had expected to be very honest. My eternal salutations to my band member Ismail for some real smoking material…

December in the Winter Heart of Saxony

Well I always try not to mix up my two lives, and succeed most of the times actually. For the ones who don’t know, I have been working as a film maker for a number of years now. The latest experimental dream baby that I have been working on is the brain child of four individuals, belonging to very diverse cultural back grounds of the world. So to cut it all short, right after the final; master I shot for nearly one whole week and then traveled with my very precious film negatives to Germany. I finished my work close by to Christmas and then moved to Berlin with my beloved friend Rene.

We spend a very interesting new year’s eve in an old castle on the outskirts of a German town called Halle. It was a personal treat for me, anyone who can relate to spending two nights in an Ancient castle, with Snow & Woods, warm burning fires, Vodka and the new Bolt Thrower record would know what the fuck I am talking about.

My first Thunderbird

So as I mentioned earlier, Dusk is very much still playing in the style of Death / Doom Metal, only with slight changes with the recipe. Actually to be very honest I am the only thing who remains the same in the recipe. Everything else, like band members, sound, process, lyrics and instruments have generated onto a new level of existence. For me personally this is the kind of sound I have wanted to play since a long time now, but I am a huge believer of timelines and hence I am quite chuffed about that is happening now. Buying new instruments and changing the sound into a much heavier and simpler format is was one of the things we have been doing since the past few months. And so I got my first every Thunderbird, from a nice and big music instruments dealer in Berlin. I wanted to initially buy a Warwick bass, but maybe I wasn’t rich enough for that during my trips to the store. So there was a series of Peveay and Ibanez basses I went through but nothing with that magic. Some were a little too uptight, the rest sounded just too tinny. I confess that my Thunderbird is an Epiphone and not an original Gibson, but I somehow find that raw growl in it. And that too, just the right amount for the reformed Dusk sound.

Latest Members

Who are they? What about them? Do we know them from before? The new Dusk members for the reformed line up are very much here with me. We have been jamming like insane beasts in a small south Karachi apartment block. Also we have been at work on the latest Dusk track. I take an oath to give complete details the next time I return here. And this time it might just happen.

Track Listing for Contrary Beliefs

Before departing for this time around I will leave you all with track titles from the experimental Dusk record, called Contrary Beliefs.

1. I Shiver
2. National Suicide Toll
3. Modern Day Tragedy
4. Karachi Circus
5. The King Laughed Endlessly
6. Dreams Alight
7. Ladder of Regret
8. Gray District Morgue
9. The Dead Visionary
10. Strange Sleep Sequence
11. Spine of Man (Version 01)

September - October 2005

Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of the weekly Dusk… Apologies for missing in action for such a long fucking time, but I was busy sorting the 'horde' and collecting lots of Epic (War films plus lots of Arthurian Cult stuff) DVD's.

Lots of stuff happening in the Dusk camp as some of you might have been hearing from various reliable and non spacey, shady sources… or perhaps… No one ever heard anything…

New Dusk member: Ismail Soomro

'Ismail is one of the oldest music buddies I have had through my life', a very excited Babar Sheikh exclaims, when asked about the new Dusk member…

Ismail has had his own electronic music project since the past four years or so and has had an evident presence through the London underground psychedelic, electronic scene…

It was just about time that this genius had to be brought in to work with the Horde…

Faraz Anwer: Absence for the time being

Long standing guitar guru for Dusk, Faraz Anwer is not participating with the Horde for the time being; there will be an official press release regarding this news very soon…

It is still unclear whether Faraz will make a come back to the next Dusk record…

'Contrary Beliefs'

Mentioned above is the title for the new dusk album, due to be released by the end days of 2005 or through very early weeks of 2006. Of course the credit for release once again will be all to the great people at Epidemie Records

The new alum explores an entire new level of sound _expression for the Horde of Dusk… According to Babar 'this is, as the name suggests, the contraries that have remained unexplored through the past years. The stuff is more than ever in the electronic vein with (the trademark Dusk) vocals and many folk and national artists making featured appearances but is definitely the most atmospheric stuff ever written for Dusk'… More updates of this very soon!

Babar growls for experimental Estonian Band

This year saw the release of the debut album by Criminal Elephant sponsored by traveling cinema geniuses 'Kinobuss'…

Babar recorded growls for one of the tracks n the Estonian capital Tallinn last year when he himself was traveling with the Kinobuss through Estonia… As Babar puts it 'Its one of the most insane and experimental things you could ever hear this year… Just utter beauty and utter madness, put together by my great friend Kasper Jancis, surely one of the craziest people I could ever have met in my life '

Gum 'The lost chapter'

Local Karachi producer/musician Uns Mufti had recently asked Babar to contribute his unhuman voice to the title track for a local television drama… The song simply titled Gum is a dialogue between good and evil, with the other part played by local singer Rabia Chaudri also know to sing for underground tracks by Uns's band called Rola… The words of this track were penned by Sajjid Hasan

TOUR DIARY

‘When it is crucial to change form… Forever, the realm towards the other side remains desired’…

On the October evening of the nineteenth, two thousand and four, and after a much hurdled past week, with means of modern transportation technology through aerial ways, we departed from the atmospheres of our beloved Karachi.

Day 01 – Prague:

Dusk _ Textures _ Alchemist _ Susperia _ Mortiis

Prague welcomed us, within its realms, at the semi early hours of the morning. Martin and Petra, our great friend and Epidemie records (or record label) label master were there to greet us an eternal welcoming.

After many useless attempts to achieve sleep through the later part of the day, we finally tuned our instruments again and set off clad in leather and black satins to the venue of the day – Abaton.

Two back stage artist rooms, a smaller one with a sign reading, Textures, Alchemist & Dusk, while the other, a much larger space suggested the later occupancy by the bigger bands on the day’s bill, Mortiis & Susperia.

There was literally no sound check till about eight that evening, that was practically only an hour before the show actually started, not to mention, the hour and a half that had been already delayed. But like they all say through the books of Rock & Roll, All big shows start late… We killed time sharing progressive rock conversation with the guys from textures and admiring the one hundred percent beautiful Moog, the keyboard player possessed.

The Alchemist guys were great people too, and till I can remember within countless cans of Czech beer, there was lot of mention about Kangaroos and Cricket. Finally, after a very hurried over all sound check, and the assembly of the Marshall Stack walls and the great Susperia drum kit, we found ourselves checking sound to our tracks.

Within moments, the first ever Dusk live show was about to commence…

Audience walked in, following a signal to us from the main man organizer who assured if we had sound checked. Hordes of people wearing black were every where to been seen in the beautifully dimly lit hall.

The satellite sound effects from our newly constructed intro to the show, cast a strange spell like feeling, till the time our (generously donated by our friends from Alchemist and Textures) dual rectifiers spoke words of wisdom…

Faraz went into immediate technicality, while I backed him up with a four chord progression. And the rest, as they say, remains history.

Dusk had an interestingly super show we collectively reckoned; not to mention this was also told to us by many a people in the audience and others who shared the stage with us. Expressions were unknown at the beginning passages from songs of ours such as Hidden from senses and Jahilia, but never the less inspiration was set to correct pathways.

Textures took the stage, with sheer velocity, twisted keyboard parts, seven string guitar onslaughts and some very skillful drumming. Very energetic indeed, and so were the Alchemist boys, unleashing Voivod type atmospheres, entwined with melodic vocal lines and guitar signatures.

Susperia in extreme ways pulverized the audience. Being the second last and also the second biggest act that night, Prague was taken into Susperia and its forged madness, until it was time to witness the biggest bad boy on the bill… Mortiis (Damn! we never knew he was the same guy who we saw so often in the last few hours in the back stage area beaming away), came up next within atmospheres and a solid whiff of anticipation, that one could feel raising from within the audience. Unfortunately we were only present for the initial two tracks of his live assault. Dark wave, industrial, punk – post – evil disco power!

Faraz and I, shattered by sleeplessness and endless black voids of traveling emptiness, spent the remaining hours of the evening, hanging out, checking out all the other artists on stage, and utilizing the space in the back stage artist’s room that was provided to us, with endless supplies of cheese, bread and drinks.

Day 02 – Sumperk:

Dusk

This was dubbed, the smallest gig on the tour by our tour manager and label owner. We were curious what it would be like. Starting with a great drive through the afternoon moments that took us out into the beautiful Czech countryside, we eventually fell into the arms of sleep.

At awakening, we realized the dense fog and darkness that surrounded our moving vehicle from all three hundred and sixty degrees.

The arrival in the northern town of Sumperk, was much awaited, by the time we actually got out f the car with our equipments. The club we played in that night was small, newly constructed, and one never could imagine, its existence in that street it was in.

Our sound that night suffered from some terrible mixing problems, neither was there really, any form of a proper Dusk audience, but we still manned our guns and made sonic war within odd time signatures and distorted expressions. At the end of the day, we had nine newly converted fans, and a drunken man kissing Faraz’s hands in awe of his guitar performance.

Day 03 – Ostrava:

Bethrayter _ Dying Passion _ Dark Gamballe _ Dusk

Ostrava was an industrial town, and maybe the third biggest city in the Czech Republic, the time we actually reached there, we were in a state worst than any we had every imagined. Eyes red from sleeplessness and bodies weak from the day long travel we made in our beloved Skoda, driven by Lukas, also the mastermind behind the in twinned textures of the Jahilia cover art. The club was decent, and had interesting audience, this was also the beginning of our two day trek with the bands, Dark Gamballe, Bethrayter and our great label mates Dying Passion.

After answering a great illustrative interview with major Czech magazine, Whiplash conducted by our man Radek, in presence of Martin, and some other great folks; we turned back indoors, tuned our instruments, and prepared for battle.

Dark Gamballe and Dying Passion, with completely different styles, but none the less great people all of them, amplified the atmospheres with their individual styles.

Dusk played last that night, resulting from some miscommunication between the organizer and our record label. From what I can recall, there was still an audience when we took the stage, and a very selective one that was. Sound was reasonable, but nothing great, and we played a full set list to the late hours of the night, and that is all I could say from Ostrava.

A beautiful girl decked in interesting gothic attire and makeup, remarked our sound resemblance to Arcana the great Swedish atmosphere merchants. Hmm, interesting… very interesting indeed.

Day 04 – Zabre Na Morave:

Bethrayter _ Dusk _Dying Passion _ Dark Gamballe

Having reached a lone standing destination that was to be our night place to hibernate at nearly six in the morning, we woke to the sound of a distant highway. This was a fellow label mate (Dying Passion bass player), Soveinski’s mother’s house. Following breakfast, we took an intense walk to an autumn infested nearby forest. Life is beautiful, was the only expression within the realms of our minds.

Zabre Na Morave, was another interesting, middle sized Czech town, with streets going up and down the hilly layout of the old city. The venue was a very interesting place, with a rather ornate (and I mean that in the true metal sense of things) interior and stage design.

Today we played up second, just before Dying Passion, as it was also the birth celebration of their latest record Sweet Delusions, out on Metal Breath and Epidemie Records simultaneously.

We had great audience, and great sound, and great reception from the minds. It couldn’t be better, local metal heads were in complete amazement at a band hailing from out of all the places, Pakistan.

Post performance, we singed CDs and I couldn’t get enough of the beautiful gothic women and the overtly generous barman who wanted to get me a free drink every ten minutes.

The Dying Passion tracks were growing on me every single day now. Very catchy and melodic I must say.

Post Note: Only at the end of the tour would we realize this was to be one of the most powerful Dusk performances of the tour.

Day 05 – Brno:

Dying Passion _ Dusk

Brno had its place as some kind f a legend town within my head, since some of my very favorite Czech bands were hailing from this town. But to my surprise (and that too, not a very pleasant one) most of the metal heads from the location were gone to check out a revival Saxon concert.

We drove to Brno in some sort of a caravan shape, with a Mercedes truck from Dying Passion leading through the Czech highways. We had slept the night before once again at Soveinski’s place, but this time around at his own great little apartment. Turns out, the guy is a great fan from early nineties technical death and thrash metal, and the sweet sounds of Sunday morning, eventually came to be polluted by many over the top bass runs and six is to thirteen time signatures.

Anyway, talking about the gig again, this was an interesting location, some kind of a small film theater, with not so great sound. This we found out when the guys from Dying Passion were sound checking. Turns out, by the time we arrived on stage, the combos we had were turned up way too loud for us to hear any sounds from our pre recordings. And once again the language barrier between the sound master and us, took it major toll that night. Fans were totally under the spell, but at what, I fail to know, this was not such an interesting gig in terms of sound we collectively thought. And the turn out of audience for a great town such as Brno was faint. But at the end of such a day, open minded words such as, ‘Intense & unforgettable atmosphere you guys have’… makes all the difference.

Day 06 – Plzen:

Coward _ Dusk _ Livoris Mortis

Martin told me this town gives the name to the most famous Czech beer…

We arrived in Plzen trough a great forest where we were earlier spending some hours with our little tour team and not to forget, this was Lukas’s grand father’s cottage from like two hundred years ago. It was a pity we had to come out to another town again, but none the less, we cherished the time we spent there.

We were quite shaken up at the previous night and were a little disillusioned, I think the entire team was… but little did we know what was in store for us tonight. We hung out in the backstage area after Coward had sound checked. Great guys they were, especially the drummer who came from a very technical school of thought was a treat for us this night. The Coward producer was an amazing personality, called Captain Denis. Once they had their show going (which also featured a near to three minute drum solo by their drummer) it was time for Dusk to set into atmospheres. We got a remarkable sound check, with a divine sound engineer who spoke English!!

The guys from Coward were generous to let us use their cabinets and amp heads and so, the show began.

According to Martin from Epidemie, this was a very open minded crowd; we had maybe over a hundred and fifty avid listeners in the crowd. Some of them singing to each and every lyric and guitar lick; it was totally insane for us. We both improvised from beginning to the end.

The crowd was so receptive; I ended up narrating the concept behind every track before we started got play the actual thing. Yes! It seemed true some how, since a lot of people had just come to witness the strange metal band from Pakistan, since most of the crowd was somehow disappeared, post Dusk.

Livoris Mortis came up next, with a complete performance set, with candles and draped black cloth. Very interesting sound, some what post early nineties black metal, with some great piano passages. We spent the remaining evening drinking Coke and Jack Denials our fans were buying us, with some awesome moments with the Coward guys. Captain Denis hugged us both after the performance and promised to bring us some Yes, Rush and Iron Maiden DVDs the following days. He also promised to find us a live drummer in Europe…

Day 07 – Litvinov:

D.P.K _ Dusk

This was meant to be interesting as Litvinov was a small Czech town nearing to the German border, and that too mostly industrial. As we drove there, smell of crude oil from the industries filled the atmosphere of the Dusk official tour car. It was surely a very different atmosphere that town possessed.

We reached the venue, and heard the opening act sound checking. Man; was death metal the word of mouth there within the walls of that club.

D.P.K was a local band playing a brand of brutal death metal, but not to forget the tightness they had together as a band – remarkable we thought.

Fans of death metal, gathered throughout the D.P.K performance giving the entire venue a very intense aura indeed. By the time they ended their set list (which was for an hour or so); our entire Jahilia tour team looked at each other with somewhat curious looks. What was going to happen next, since we were anything but early nineties brutal death metal styled.

As we took the stage for a sound check with endless walls of solid feed back, a metal head started shouting, Afghanistan – Afghanistan in a football stadium chanting style, when another one nudged him to tell him that we were from Pakistan and not from Afghanistan.

So within endless Jahilia, we started our performance, with a rather death metal sound to our guitars and the drums. I think that was the reason we some how ended up playing in a much harder vein than usual, my vocals came across mostly in growls and grim shrieks, much more than usual. We thought it was the very metal crowd who were constantly chanting with both hands in the air.

At the end of our performance, there was such applause, that we just had to go into an on chore…

Martin thought we had never sounded so brutal… But that is another plus point with playing for Dusk, as the sound is much flexible to sound atmospheric and dreamy, like a few nights ago, and chaotic and hard like tonight.

To end with, I think we received one of the biggest compliments there ever could be for a progressive metal band. The guitar player from D.P.K explained how all his life he wanted to see Death and Chuck Schuldiner live, and was never able to, since the death of the legend, but tonight, he exclaimed, his dream had been fulfilled.

Day 08 – Havlickuv Brod:

Ahumando Granujo _ F.O.B _ Dusk _ Melancholy Pessimism _ Dying Passion

We arrived at the ‘Vagon’, which was supposed to be a legendary club in that part of neighboring towns. Great atmosphere the place had, which was overtly amplified with the coming of autumn’s breath. After some cold moments in the backstage room we were taken out for dinner with Lukas our beloved graphic artist and now official driver for the tour.

W e had already missed the opening act ‘Ahumando Granujo’ who from what I had heard from rumors were one of the best grind acts in that region. What a pity we couldn’t see them…

Next up were F.O.B, playing a rather synchronized brand of technical death metal. Quiet ferocious sounding, if one thinks of the fact that they are a three piece. To put it in simple words, F.O.B blew away any forms of life that existed within the walls of the club. Powerful, and more was to follow as we were more than excited to see our label mates ‘Melancholy Pessimism’ in live form. Dusk took the stage next to an audience which had just recovered from the brutal shock therapy offered to them by F.O.B. As usual, expressionless with our revamped version of our Intro to the show ‘Attachments’, the crowd totally embraced in anthemia fashion the off timed hooks laid out by our tunes such as ‘Hidden from Senses’ and Await was responded with a totally killer response. We witnessed many pounding at their hearts after we had ending the doom session with Fortress of Solitude and Still Black & White. It was a great feeling to know that ones music could touch the hearts of the legions.

Kily and party took the stage next with varied expressions and sheer brutality that Melancholy Pessimism was known for. Kily, a great and strong front man, right in the leagues of George ‘Corpse Grinder’ Fisher, sonically brutalized the atmosphere in totality.

Last but not the least ‘Dying Passion’ took the stage, who we were more than happy to see the night, with anthems of ever lasting bliss and eternal satisfaction, they soared through progressive musical barrages.

Unfortunately by this time we had somewhat hibernated within the confines of the backstage area.

And now, let’s call it a night shall we?

Day 09 – Tabor:

Trollech _ F.O.B _ Dusk _ Craniotomy _ Melissa

Tabor was another one of the famous Czech cities I had heard of, since I know some musicians who hailed from these realms.

Vegetable fried rice was one of the first impressions we got from today’s venue, which was more of a restaurant cum youth centre than a metal club, but none the less, today was supposed to be a rather interesting mixture between bands and styles once again.

Trollech, were up first with their brand of forest black metal with touches of middle eighties thrash and heavy metal. I personally thought their sound was very contained and was governed by some what of a progressive insanity. Great guys also I must mention as they told me of an actual forest gig they had a few month ago with some close friends.

F.O.B needed no introduction tonight, as it was their show and their people. A flawless uplifting of the spirit to much brutal technicality is what I would explain their set to be, not forgetting memorable head banging by the two grace full front men.

Within moments, it was time for Dusk, and once again we were blessed with an English speaking sound master. Things went smooth enough we thought, except for the fact that the venue wasn’t really built to sustain the rock or metal sound. Legions were on our side (once again), as this usually becomes clear at the very beginning of second track Hidden from Senses. We finished our set list, almost packed our cables when we were stopped for an on chore.

Post show a reasonable sized CD signing session and some photo graphs with local fans topped the evening’s treats for us, and we set back with our Jahilia tour team towards the city of Prague.

Once again, the night was ours… the ninth showing for the Jahilia tour ‘04 coming to an end.

Day 10 – Prague:

Dying Passion _ F.O.B _ Melancholy Pessimism _ Dusk _ Agiathrias

Initially planned out to be an Epidemie Records special one night assorted blast into infinity, and much awaited by pretty much everyone we met on the road since we started eleven days ago… The 31st dated Dusk show at the Matrix in Prague was always envisioned to be the last note from the nocturnal symphony… the grand finale of soul piercing sounds and progressions.

The previous night we had learnt that F.O.B was also going to be playing on the gig… It was great since they were great guys, an of course this time around also… great technical death trio brought out their trusty amplification and sound apparatus all the fucking way to Prague.

A few nights earlier we had gone and met up with Colin the man who was going to be responsible for the entire sound design that evening. Some what having the status of a cult legend in the musical circles of Prague we finally found ourselves sharing an ashtray with Colin that evening of the show before the sound check. Great stories of experiences and encounters with most of the British Pop and Psychedelic scene of the late seventies and the early eighties made their homes within our minds.

I had been heavily listening to the new Borknagar record that evening and most of the melodies somewhat got visual attachments from the cold and wet back stage area that was allotted to the bands that evening. Dying passion went on first, even though I must confess most of the time of their being on stage we were indulging in Chinese cuisine nearly fifty meters away at a scarcely populated restaurant.

F.O.B, as usual full of power with their opening anthem ‘Never ending projection’ they were going up right there with Dying Passion on my brain’s list of R.S.F.F.T.A… (Remembering Songs from Fellow Touring Artists)… Melancholy Pessimism was next and aggressive as fuck. Never underestimate a power house of a front man like they have…

We went up on stage pretty much the scheduled time actually, and a very receptive Colin switched all the lights off… There was however an occasional red blur in the retina at times signifying the fact that somewhere at the end of the tunnel there was light. From what I heard, this was to date the darkest show Dusk played to date. Even though I still can’t realize what dark it is that they spoke about? Was it the use of more minor notes, or was it the lack of actual light? Also someone the very next day within the streets of old Prague who had seen us the previous night commented, ‘it was very serious you people, more like two formulated individuals wearing black and meaning darkness’…

Agiathrias went up and took the stage after us with psychotic industrial animation and sound; sadly I only witnessed their initial impressions since our absence from the venue in those time frames was recorded. Or to be honest we were backstage with other touring artists getting pictures taken…

Remember me, as fading images…

Day 11 – Ceske Budejovice:

Vicia Virtutis _ Dusk _ Daath

This was some thing of a bonus date for us, since it was the same night when in the morning hours we were to initiate our journey back home. It was a small show but still some great and friendly people there.

The guitar player from Vicia was a complete cult guy with some of the most awesome tattoos I have seen in my life. Great dinner, great opening band playing a brand of blackened death metal, great and completely improvisational Dusk performance and also a great after band who played some great mid tempo stuff.

This was the last show on the tour and somewhat felt like it was the prefect city and venue to end with. We the five member of the Jahilia tour team hung out in the atmospheres of the old city centre for the following hours and then finally drove back to lovely Prague. The end! Really...?

Didn’t quite hit us until we boarded the connecting flight from Dubai to Karachi that the tour was over, and we had departed from the realms of Central Europe.

Much Eternal Gratitude goes out to:

Martin, Petra, Lukas and Soveinski and of course everyone else (individuals and bands) who we met on the tour, you people know who you are and what you meant to us.