Experimental Metal Duo DOUAUMONT’s DSCH: String Quartet No. 8 Out Today

DSCH: String Quartet No. 8, the second album from avant-garde metal duo DOUAUMONT, is available today via all major streaming platforms and via download on Pale Noise Media’s Bandcamp page for a “name your price” fee.

A full visualizer stream of the album is available at https://youtu.be/RIdnYKRB7uo. Pre-orders for physical copies are available at https://palenoisemedia.bandcamp.com/.

DSCH: String Quartet No. 8 is an avant-garde, metallic take on 20^th century Soviet composer’s Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8.

Originally dedicated by Shostakovich “to the victims of fascism and the war,” DOUAUMONT’s encapsulation of String Quartet No. 8 is dedicated to the memory of its composer, who was noted as saying, “I’ve [just finished] an ideologically deficient quartet that nobody needs. I reflected that when I die it’s not likely anyone will write a quartet dedicated to my memory. So I decided to write it myself. You could even write on the cover [of this string quartet]: ‘Dedicated to the memory of the composer of this quartet.’”

While caught in the middle of the emerging Soviet regime, Shostakovich found himself contemplating heavy and abstract principles of life through his compositions – most clearly seen in works not infected by the influence of his corrupt government. This can be morally and philosophically reflected in the present as groups are still actively fighting for basic human rights and equalities.

“Our objective with this record is to provide a modern and stylized reinterpretation of Shostakovich’s compositional masterpiece,” DOUAUMONT’s Andy Meyer and Matt Wees say. “Focusing on the attempt to retain the same gravity as it did in the 1960s when Shostakovich was left alone, weeping, having just heard the Borodin Quartet give him a private reading of his work.”

A video for “Largo” from DSCH: String Quartet No. 8 is available at https://youtu.be/p3R_vlZ_lsc.

DSCH: String Quartet No. 8 track listing:

I. Largo

II. Allegro Molto

III. Allegretto

IV. Largo

V. Largo

DOUAUMONT was born of Meyer and Wees’ passion to create a new project under their Pale Noise label – one with more immediate composition and aesthetic world-building, as opposed to their death metal inspired Rictus project. Given a desire to further explore Meyer’s seven string bass, DOUAUMONT effectively replaces the role that a guitar has in most modern metal outfits.

“DOUAUMONT exists in a constant state of immediate reflection on moments through life,” the duo explains. “While this could be said about all of our projects, DOUAUMONT aims to create a sharper image of a shorter window in time, and there is no preconception as to what a Dou release will sound like before going into pre-production. Experimentation has been present in our workflow since we started working together in 2014, but never so aesthetically grounded/accessible while still being able to effectively do whatever we want to like in DOUAUMONT.”

DSCH: String Quartet No. 8 still follows this model of experimentation, but also attempts to capture the feeling Meyer and Wees experienced while listening to and studying the original work. “This string quartet piece is often referred to as ‘the metal string quartet’ by a lot of people even outside the genre, and the goal here was to really MAKE it that,” the band says.

DOUAUMONT online: