Duma

Description

Extinction of the lights, end of the game, Duma has won. Breathtaking in every way, the self-titled debut album of the Kenyan grindcore band Duma, released in 2020, is made up of blast beats, sky-splitting synthesizer noise, and shredded larynx vocals. It is the most incredible dose of vital and marginal energy one can imagine in these dark times, one of the most powerful albums of 2020, sure to shake opinions and disrupt preconceived notions of what music from East Africa, or anywhere else in the world, can be. Comprised of Martin Khanja (Lord Spikeheart) and Sam Karugu, Duma produces an astonishing extreme sound, rooted in the thriving underground metal scene of Nairobi, where they have already played in the bands Lust of a Dying Breed and Seeds of Datura. True to their name—which translates to "darkness" in kiyuku—they forge an unprecedented darkside sound, welding metal vocals and eschatological synths to the frenzied energy of Central African rhythms and breakcore in arrangements that defy comprehension. Of course, they can be compared to other extreme music groups—the dark and cosmic Congolese energy of Nkisi or the cataclysmic sound of Wold/Black Mecha, and the bestial Senyawa from Indonesia—but fundamentally, Duma is, like all these groups, in a realm of its own. From the psychoactive burst of militant snares and piercing synths on "Angels and Abysses" to the funeral doomcore singing of "Pembe 666," through the exquisite threat of "Uganda With Sam" and the blazing finale of "The Echoes of The Beyond," they reshape the game in their image with each song, bending conventions and styles with a profound sense of freedom and possessed discipline.