Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Era’s end, they have to, unless the sound of the universe you are searching for is the crippling regret of entropy and the slow hand clap of performance that sneaks into the set from decay.
It is though what we replace an era with that gives us hope of continuance, of making sure that after the grief of universal upheaval and loss, that we can rebuild in a form that thrills us, guides us, makes us rage and shake our fists at the sky as it falls around us, and makes us want to double down on the love we feel for the world, our home, our reason to be.
Germany’s Dust Bolt have found a way past the creaking despondency and glitter masquerading as the signs of a new dawn that others have worshiped, and in Sound & Fury that dawn has arrived with a loud and resolute crack of realisation that what we have dealt with before does not have to stand the test of itself but be used as a solid foundation in which to move on once more. Empires fall, but what rises in their place can be magnificent and true.
In Sound & Fury the band come together after the near ruthless pursuit of Time has attempted to beat the members into submission; they are not alone, we have become used to the daily punishments that we have barely caught our breath, and our breathing has become slow and laboured because of it. For the world though the damage is swept aside in the force that decries the belief that it signifies nothing, but which in reality signals the bell for the faithful to return and silence the mutterings of the unhinged doomsters along the way.
Metal but with a twist in the ranks, and the sound and confidence reflects that with a grin as wide as the Danube, a resolution passed between the band and their confidents, that Thrash can also have an air of lightness attached to it, stapled firmly into the chest, drawing upon the blood of ages, and yet still remain unblemished…this is the revolution in spirit, the defeat of rust and erosion from within; the injection of the new.
For vocalist Lenny Bruce, who declares not a truce but a roar of vengeance in his performance, Flo Dee, Exx Tom, and Nico Rayman, the journey of the last few years is presented with a keenness of attitude, the dust has been swept away and what stands proud in songs such as the album opener of Leave Nothing Behind, I Witness, Burning Pieces, You Make Me Feel (Nothing), and Feel The Storm, is hunger of the new way of thinking, of an acceptance and a resolution to never allow Time to chew down on their desires again.
Sound & Fury is passion understood, it is a snub to antiquity, a ferocious roar in the face of rust, and it is one that is truly welcome.
Dust Bolt release Sound & Fury on February 23rd via AFM Records.