Dust – Soulburst (CD)

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