Aux Crepuscule ("To Dusks" for the non French speaking among us) is a pretty decent but unremarkable debut (as far as I know) from this two piece from the land of garlic butter sauces and frog leg lunches. "Thrash" is the operative word when dealing with Imperial, and they're fairly good at the style - the problem lies in the fact that it's been done to death, and unless you're an aficionado of this style, this probably won't hold your attention past the first few listens. All the mandatory pre-requisites are here (thrashy mid toned guitars playing fairly catchy riffs, hoarse mid range vocals, etc.), but this doesn't push the envelope at all - it's basically regurgitating Artillery and the like, although a lot less German sounding than one would expect (more of a general Eurothrash feel to it). There were actually quite a few moments here and there on the CD in which I found my foot tapping along, so this does have a certain infectious catchiness to it, and the vocals are quite good in my opinion (Skrow has one hell of a voice - reminds me of Mille quite a bit), not to mention that the production is also top notch, having a very vital and live feel to it (the guitar tone in particular is excellent), so truth be told, this CD does have a lot of good points in it's favor - hell, for a style that's basically been a dead horse for the better part of a decade, Imperial manage to beat *something* worthwhile out of it >:] If thrash is your thing, you should definitely pick this up, 'cos as far as this thing goes, Imperial have managed to produce an excellent (if someone redundant) CD...

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