The debut album of the Dust Coda front man’s other project drops tomorrow! Their 2024 EP was amazing, and they have only gone from strength to strength since then, so to finally have this coming out is pretty damn exciting! Their combination of blues and hard rock is a lot of fun, so let’s dive right in!
The album opens right into some great instrumentation, an almost punk flavour to the riffing and drumming at first. AK’s powerful vocals soon come over the top, a great, catchy melody over some chuggy riffs. There’s some awesome harmonies and tracking around the vocals too, adding so much depth to the delivery. It all builds to a massive chorus, one designed to be played to huge arena crowds! There’s a touch of the blues the band are known for coming out of the choruses with that riff too, fitting perfectly alongside the punkier rest. We also get an awesome little guitar solo tucked away in the middle, packed full of feeling an emotion, sounding fantastic! This is an amazing song, and a perfect selection for the opener and a single, kicking things off with a bang!
The energy stays high heading into ‘Born to Lose’. Once again I get as much Wildhearts vibes as I do blues, definitely a punky edge to it all. Andrew’s vocals fit perfectly over the simple riffing and driving drums, once again building excellently to a massive chorus. Said chorus fits perfectly into the back of the verse though, the instrumentation staying similar, just getting bigger, making everything sound massive as a result! The lyrics here are great too, packed with attitude and being some of my favourite on the whole album. The solo here is more technical this time, fitting the lighter natural of the song and giving the perfect reprieve from the standard structure of the rest. My only complaint is that it was so short, but I get not everyone wants sprawling solos! Another excellent song, and an easy highlight of the album!
Things turn sharply into the blues direction I expected from the release with ‘Stronger’. It still fits perfectly in with the heaviness and tone of the release so far, but definitely feels like it focuses much more on the blues guitaring than the others. The riffing is awesome, and I LOVED the ‘ooo’s in the build-up intro, too. A stripped-back verse leads to a bigger, catchy chorus. However, that driving riff from the guitar and bass are definitely the main strength of the track. And, even in a track barely 2:30, we still get some awesome lead work out of that second chorus. It’s short and sweet, in-and-out and very to the point, and I think it serves the track well, as any more of the same sort of idea, outside of jamming it out for minutes of proggy soloing, may have gotten a bit much!
Single ‘Karmic Rituals’ heavy’s things back up again, while still very much maintaining that blues riffing awesomeness from the previous song. Andrew’s vocals once again sound awesome over the top, weaving a fantastic melody over the driving drums and bass, the guitar cutting in intermittently Honestly, the closest thing I can compare it to is Mammoth, which is certainly a compliment! The verse is catchy enough, but then effortlessly leads into an expectedly great chorus, catchy and certainly one to sing along to. It’s another short, simple-structured track, but I liked the riffing for the bridge too, and the final chorus hits hard! It’s one that easily makes our playlist!
A dirty blues riff forms the basis of ‘Pearls Before Swine’, the guitar kicking it off but the bass and it’s incredible tone carry it on perfectly through the verse. It has a bit of swagger and attitude to it, making for an incredibly fun listen. Honestly, it’s got some funk rock to it, like a Living Colour or Staggered Crossing, and I’m a little obsessed! The whole thing is massively catchy, but that chorus is on another level! It’s my favourite track on the album, and a song that I’ll be spinning a lot in the coming weeks and months to come. Wow!
Tracks like ‘West Coast Romance’, the title track and ‘Trouble Again’ are more steady-paced, blues-dripping stompers, all as good as the last! The latter is my favourite of the group, the riff being great and AK putting in one of his best vocal performances to boot. However, all are great and fit the tone and pace of the album fantastically, none of them even feeling like album tracks. It was easier to group them together to save me repeating myself with my fan-girling over and over!
‘Sierra Starlight’ is the slower track on the album, but is still infused with blues, soul and roots. It feels ripped straight out of Sinners, almost having a country edge to it. Yet, somehow, it also fits perfectly in with the rest of the album. Arguably it could have done with being a little earlier, as it breaks things up tonally incredibly, but also felt just as natural here. It’s another amazing song and HUGE album highlight, showing off the band’s range impeccably.
The last two tracks left from the album, singles ‘We Belong’ and ‘Cosmic Train’. Both are on the heavier end, more Black Stone Cherry-like than a classic blues thing. They’re amazing songs both in their own right, and were two more excellent choices for singles! The latter in particular is another huge high point on the release, and closes things off perfectly. All three members get their time to shine throughout, and it makes for a damn fun listen! Two more great songs on an album packed full of them!
Overall: This is an awesome release! Every track is as good as the last, and it has an amazing flow to it, going by in a flash. All three guys killed it throughout too, showing off that they are some of the best in the scene right now. They really are going from strength to strength as a band, and this is surely set to push them up to the next level! I’ll certainly be spinning this plenty in the weeks and months to come!
The Score: 9/10