Saturday, November 1, 2014

Dust - Hard Attack (1972)


Totally sweet 70s rock (proto-metal?) from a lesser known American band. Catchy riffs, wailing leads, and appealingly clean, higher-register vocals that work as an effective counterpoint to Dust's harder moments. Though this is front-to-back killer, I have to single out "Thusly Spoken", whose laid-back, ballad-like feel (complete with string section) make it a strangely beautiful outlier that's all the more strange for the fact that it's about armageddon.

Track listing:
1. Pull Away / So Many Times
2. Walk in the Soft Rain
3. Thusly Spoken
4. Learning to Die
5. All in All
6. I Been Thinkin'
7. Ivory
8. How Many Horses
9. Suicide / Entrance

Angry angels cried
Satan yearning casts a spell on us
Cherubim with wings that cannot fly
Dancing demons fill the sky

7 comments:

  1. Plus Marky Ramone on drums! What's not to like.

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  2. Apropos of nothing: the Scott Walker/SunnO))) collaboration Soused released last week, fully ladened in absolutely marvelous brain melting weirdness. A fucking brilliant capper to Mr. Walker's strange trajectory through the trilogy that now is the Drift, Bish Bosch and Soused. The only complaint here is that it's much too short. Here's hoping someone now gives Mssrs Anderson and O'Malley directions to Diamanda Galas' house.

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    1. Sunn 0))) and Diamanda....that would be awesome! She's about the only person who could give Attila Csihar a run for his money!

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  3. I though only Molly Hatchet used Frank Frazetta art for their album covers in the 70's!

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  4. Back on topic: I have a soft spot for off the radar 70s hard rock albums like this Dust release. Others to the fore include Granmax/A Ninth Alive; West Bruce & Laing/Whatever Turns You On; Sharks/First Water; and the Rods' debut, though it qualifies as metal. But the wonderfully stoopid lyrics and blazing riffs on that one are not to be missed. Get the cheapest beer you can find, and enjoy.

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