Not to be
confused with the 70s namesakes, who released two albums. These Swedish retro
rockers should however appeal to the fans of the aforementioned. Dust’s first
effort really struck like me a sledgehammer! Outstanding 70s sounding riff
oriented hard rock with a touch of the mighty Badlands. The debut was a self-financed
affair, while they have now been picked up by the appropriately named Attitude
Records. This is also, I was told by one of the members, why they decided to
re-record two songs from the debut. This means that for us “old” fans this
release features seven new tracks to suck on. The album kicks off with “Sun Rising”
which instantly shows the band hasn’t changed their winning concept from the
debut. Next up is “The King Is Coming” which really shows the band’s Badlands
influences with the mighty Roger Solander sounding like Ray Gillen’s long lost
cousin. Johan Niskanen is a bluesy riff machine with a lot of tasty leads under
his belt, often skipping the rhythm guitar during the solos and leaving it up
to the tightly knit power rhythm package of bass player Bernt Ek and drummer
Örjan “Dr Rock” Englin to fill every crack and crevice. It’s however not all
power riffs and heavy rhythms. “Waiting For You” is a cool blues oriented ballads,
with a hint of vintage Whitesnake (when Dave still had a voice and they were a
blues rock unit). “Free” is based on almost the same, more or less sacred and
forbidden but still often used, riff pattern of Hendrix “Freedom”. A tad too
close, but still a great song. “Soul Stealer” is another cool riff rocker in
line with the rest of the album. The album closes with a cool Univibe drenched
guitar floating on top of the groovy rhythm package and Solander soaring above
it all with his bluesy melodic top notch vocals. All in all a solid follow-up
to a killer debut! If you’re into bands like Badlands, King Karma etc., don’t
miss these guys out!
Janne Stark
Year: 2016
Label:
Attitude Records
Country:
Sweden
