Blood Duster
Lyden Na
6.9
Remember Blood Duster? The darlings of Relapse and comedic groovy grindcore? Well somewhere between Cunt and their ill fated Season of Mist self titled album, the band seemed to have fallen from grace and lost whatever relevance they had. Maybe it was their shift to even more groovy, almost rock based tunes and more emphasis on humor than music.
Either way, they now find themselves on a homeland label Shock Records (with Obscene handling the European release) and a two disc release that seems like a forced attempt to appease fans of their new friendlier sound and throw a bone to fans of Yeest and Str8t Outta Northcote.
Disc one of Lyden Na (The Now Sound) is the so called ‘groove’ album with eleven slightly longer tracks of the band’s irreverent power chord based, groove rock with gruff vocals and even gang chants. Typically humorous song titles like “Pisstomper”, “BrokeAssBitch”, “RockNRollJihad”, "MySpaceYourface” and tongue in cheek ballad “TheNightTheyBurnedOld EmoDown” are fairly simple forays into catchy, rock based metal, just rendered with a deep, beefy guitar tone and hints of grindcore groove. It’s hardly recognizable from the bands early efforts, but has some merits in its catchy, comedic prose and even a bagpipe surfaces for “BrokeAssBitch” and a somber piano outro closes “MySpaceYourFace”. Heck, “DusterDuster” with its mix of AC/DC and Nu-metal and programmed close out, could be a radio hit.
The second disc is the ‘grind’ album with sixteen short (under a minute – under two minutes) bursts of far more aggressive and blasting, but still humorous grindcore more akin to the band's early material and allows new drummer Dave Haley (The Amenta, Psycroptic) to actually show his skills. These tracks are far better, and while retaining the band's trademark humor (“ISawYourDadSuckingOffAnotherDudesDad”, “StrungUpWithCockInHand”), are far more rumbling and frenetic, though still somewhat catchy and with ample, more urgent groove (“BetterStartASeedBank”). This second disc, while not as offensive and primal as say, Yeest, is a welcome throwback, but on the tails of the first CD as well as the band’s previous couple of albums, sounds a bit forced. Nasum this is not. As an extra bonus the CD comes with a code where you can go to the band’s website and download a twenty-one minute drone, but I must confess I have not done this yet.
It’s fairly obvious the line up and label changes have hampered Blood Duster’s once meteoric rise amid extreme metal, and although Lyden Na offers up something for all fans, it comes across as more like a retrospective or peace offering, as if the band is begging to get back ‘in’ the metal circle. It remains to be seen if the band can get back in and make an impact - I mean be honest, how many of you even knew they were still together and had a new album? Still, a fun little album all by itself and worth the price either way.
Related
Blood DusterSelf Titled
10/6/2004