Dust Bolt - Sound and Fury

Dust Bolt – Sound and Fury
Release Date: 23rd February 2024
Label: AFM Records
Order/Stream
Genre: Metal, Thrash, Hard Rock.
FFO: Skid Row, Hellyeah, Stone Sour, Lazarus A.D., Damageplan.
Review By: Mark Young

I always wonder about bands who trumpet a change in approach or direction. Is it going to be a successful evolution or feel as though it is half-hearted. Dust Bolt are looking to kick on and forge a new path, and you always think it is a brave move to try.

Kicking off with Leave Nothing Behind, with muscular riffing and vocal styles that switch from the harder edge over to cleans channels more than a bit of Lamb of God, which is no bad thing. I’m not completely sold on the mixed vocal style because when it’s used it kills the song dead in its tracks. In either state, hard metal or hard rock, it’s ok, but having the two together suggests a lack of conviction. The bio notes that this is a new phase album, moving forwards while still having that thrash feel, they are throwing more of the harder rock into the writing.

I mean, the riffing on I Witness as it kicks in is supreme, it’s that foot down approach that is going to cause aggro in the pit. The singing here, whilst not totally clean, is leaning to that hard rock side again, and I’m not sure how I feel about it because the phrasing harks back to the golden age of thrash from the 80s which doesn’t sit with the more extreme singing on display. Not wanting to be a dick about it, it should be one or the other and push forward with it.

On I Am The One and New Flame they meld with success the riffing with that late 80s style of singing that fits the music better, and with Burning Pieces we are firmly in the land of hard rock. Of these songs, they are put together well, but leave me flat. This is one of those things, and I would say that they sound as good as the hard rock that came out in the late 80s and early 90s. Later tracks go back to melding that extreme style with the cleans and their take on groove with Love Reality that reminds of something and for the life of me I can’t recall it. It continues with that harder rock approach, and to be honest I’m getting a little weary of it. By the time the mournful and melancholic Little Stone comes around, I’ve had enough. A lot of this music I heard the first time round and didn’t like it then. This is no fault of the guys in Dust Bolt, there will be those out there who dig it. Just not me.

On reflection, it feels as though they were trying to put a lot of different ideas together, and not a lot of it has landed. As mentioned, the vocal styles that run between the growls to clean singing to all out sing-a-along on I Am The One is a jarring affair and if you didn’t like that style back in the day (I didn’t) then I don’t think this will change your mind here. The bringing of styles together and having them connected so it’s seamless is difficult. I applaud them for trying, there are riffs a plenty here, in both the harder and hard rock styles, and they do it well, but it wasn’t for me.