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DUST BOLT
Awake The Riot

Napalm (2014)
Rating: 7/10

German thrashers Dust Bolt share record labels with legendary power metallers Grave Digger and with second album Awake The Riot, they sort of exist as a little brother to the experienced elders.

The band formed back in 2006 but it took six years for the quartet to release their 2012 debut album, the impressive Violent Demolition, which for the most part lived up to its moniker. Thankfully, Dust Bolt haven’t left us gagging for too long. Awake The Riot comes fully equipped with 12 solid thrash metal songs which, when put together, run for just under an hour.

The album opens with the rattling ‘Living Hell’, a sturdy five-minute romp through the void of melodic thrash. It’s pretty unremarkable I guess, but in a genre where literally every style has been incorporated, it’s only right that all the bands contained herein should be given the chance to air their angst – of all the contemporary acts doing the rounds, these guys aren’t bad at all. Yes, we can expect a few gang chants, a few chunky riffs and the rather mediocre vocal snarls of voice Lenny, but such is his energy that his choppy raps have an almost hardcore hostility to them. The riffs are reasonably fast throughout, and always crunchy. Kudos goes to Flo for this belligerence which enables tracks such as ‘Living A Lie’ to rise above the dull, even if there is a complete lack of originality.

With Awake The Riot though, it feels as if we’re hearing a band who just want to be themselves and not give a damn about what anyone else thinks. If you’re after a simple dose of straight up thrash metal, then this could well be the latest shot in the arm you’re looking for. Indeed, when the band gets the groove right, the riffs end up swimming around your brain and refuse to leave. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the churning chug of ‘Eternal Waste’ and the bone-shuddering stomp of ‘Drowned In Blind Faith’.

Awake The Riot is a marked improvement on the debut platter. It’s a record that shows some maturity, but maintains the levels of aggression too. Certainly with tracks such as ‘Soul Erazor’ the band could be accused of coming a little too close to the dynamics of Slayer, but then again almost every thrash band from the 1980s could also be blamed for such imitation. If you like good, hard, pulverising thrash metal that rarely pauses for breath though, then this is a riot worth joining.

Neil Arnold

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