Wednesday, 22 January 2025

RUST BUCKET ~ RUST BUCKET .... review

 

If music that is raw, raging, raucous and rocking is your jam then Minnesota's Rust Bucket, Tom K. (vocals); Adam (bass); Gene (guitar); Pete (guitar) and Luke (drums), deliver everything you could possibly ask for with their self-titled debut album "Rust Bucket" (Glory or Death Records), a collection of songs that are mix of distorted swampy bluesiness, stonerized mid-west metallurgy and dirty dank doominosity. 

If you want fuzz then these boys have a shitload of it and they trowel it on thick and meaty all over each and every one of the ten tracks they present us with on "Rust Bucket". From opening number "Four On The Floor" through to final number "Transmission" these guys give no quarter, the band pummelling their listeners into submission with waves upon waves of buzzsaw guitar riffage, growling grizzled low end and huge tumultuous rhythms. Subtleties here are few and far between but they do exist and present themselves in the form of  tasteful lead work and occasional slightly lysergic textures, however there are no subtleties to be found in vocals that accompany this onslaught of groove, gritty throaty tones are what we get throughout the albums duration but its a grittiness aligned with melody, albeit a raw and uncompromising take on melody. Now you might be thinking with all this mention of riffage, rawness and raucousness that Rust Bucket are one of those bands who are all riffs and rhythms and no real substance but you would be wrong, yes the riffs and rhythms play a big part in Rust Bucket's musical attack but under all that swagger and bluster there is a ton of substance. These guys have chops and can play up a storm but they also know a thing or two about song structure and dynamics with songs like "Hypertension" (featuring Fu Manchu's Bob Balch), "Apparition" and "The Darkness" sounding on the surface like an avalanche of rocks rolling down a mountain but underneath having a lot more going on.


You will find no heartfelt ballads or towering torch songs among the ten songs gracing "Rust Bucket" what you get instead is ten full on and in your face grooves fronted by larynx wrecking vocal grittiness, a must hear album for fans of who loved the force of nature that was the late Dave Sherman's Earthride but also for those that have a penchant for the feral raw bluesiness of Left Lane Cruiser. 
Check it out .....

© 2025 Frazer Jones

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