Dust
Hard Attack

Sensational: this second album by the Americans Dust has something fierce, terribly barbaric, and we're not talking about the splendid cover by master Frank Franzetta, famous for his work with Molly Hatchet; 'Hard Attack' is the classic example of how Epic Metal, in its proud and primal component, is music that knows no age, always able to deliver the same emotions; and if you then consider that this record was released in the distant year of grace 1972, you can well understand the initial state of excitement.

If not the very first, certainly among the first bands to play raw, tough Heavy Metal, a bastard child of the sixties' blues heritage, Dust is remembered more for their collaborations following the release of their only two studio albums, with drummer Marc Bell becoming Marky Ramone, and guitarist Ritchie Wise producing the first sensational Kiss album, than for what they actually did, that is to lay the foundations for a noble and proud genre like the purest and most staunch Epic Metal which, about a decade after their second album, would lead other artists to release records of absolute artistic significance as in the cases of Manowar, Cirith Ungol, and especially Manilla Road, perhaps those closest to the conception of Epic Metal, and the true heirs of Dust.

With a formation stabilized around a classic power trio, a lineup close to the seventies conception, according to many contemporary music critics, but especially of the time, Dust was considered one of the best triangular formations of the American seventies scene, thanks to a uniquely composite and seemingly intricate musical style that wisely combined dark and majestic atmospheres, Rock/Blues school riffs, and harmonization, and sudden digressions into the field of Epic and majestic Hard Rock, dreamed and never banal, the central core of the New York band consisted of serious and prepared musicians, endowed with a wide-ranging musical background like the talented bassist Kenny Aarson, producer of the album, who with his deadly fretless bass managed to brand his band's compositions, and who formed, with the already mentioned Marc Bell, one of the most devilish and frenzied rhythm sections of those years, while it fell to the guitar player, and vocalist, Ritchie Wise to set the pace with his nervy, lightning solos and those proto-heavy metal accelerations which, certainly, over the years have taught more than one rocker.

Beyond this, their sound will surely appeal to those who are accustomed to listening to bands like Cactus, Blue Cheer, Grand Funk, or early Rush, a hard and steel-tempered sound then, but well-arranged and with stunning melodic peaks. Indeed, alongside tracks loaded with pure adrenaline and dynamite like the seismic All in All, which sounds like a Heavy version of the Beatles and early Who, or the epic and sumptuous stride of Suicide that combines vocals à la Rolling Stones, with riffs worthy of the finest vintage Page, find space the delicate melodies of the dreamy Thusly Spoken, a delicate ballad rich in references to the mid-European progressive tradition, Genesis above all, the country rock atmospheres of I Been Thinkin, with a slide guitar in the foreground that accompanies some truly touching mellifluous atmospheres, while the qualitative peak is reached by the trio with the instrumental Ivory where they, free from any artistic constraints, showcase the best of their repertoire, building a truly impenetrable wall of sound, built on pachyderm guitars and a square and precise rhythm section.

A group to absolutely know, whether you are lovers of the seventies or inclined to the current modernities, "Dust Attack" is an album worth spending some of your precious time searching for, trust me.