Blood Duster
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Blood Duster is a deathgrind/grindrock/sludge metal/stoner rock band from Melbourne, Australia, known for their combination of seemingly unrelated styles of metal and rock and their perverse humour. Their name comes from the song Blood Duster by John Zorn from the 1989 album Naked City. The band is currently enjoying some semi-mainstream success after the late 2003 release of their self-titled album and a national tour with the annual Big Day Out festival.
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[edit] Band History
The band was formed in Glenroy , Victoria in August 1991 by Jason "PC" Fuller (bass player), Anthony Barry (vocals and guitar) and Andrew "Brick" Brown (drums). They recorded their demo "Menstrual Soup" later that year at S.A.E. in St Kilda with the help of Scott Harper. This demo was self-released on cassette, but following high demand for it years later was re-released in 2004 on Czech label Bizarre Leprous Productions. Blood Duster didn't play live with this line-up and soon Anthony Barry was ejected. A short-lived experimental line-up consisted of Jason P.C., Brick and newcomers Troy Darlington (guitar) and Callum Wilson (vocals). This version of the band lasted only a few months before Wilson was fired. The remaining members played their debut show at the Sarah Sands Hotel in front of 300 fans supporting Christbait with Darlington handling guitar and vocals.
Wilson and Darlington later formed a doom metal band called Portrayal but were meanwhile replaced in Blood Duster by Tony Forde (vocals) and Brad Johnston (guitar), formerly of death metal band Hecatomb, which also supplied drummer Shane Rout (Brick quit due to medical reasons). This line-up recorded 1993's Fisting the Dead, a straight-forward grindcore EP that featured 25 tracks. The release of the album was followed by an Australian tour with Brutal Truth after which both Rout and Johnston left to work on Rout's side-project, a black metal band called Abyssic Hate. In fact, this EP was so popular that it remains the best-selling album on its label, Dr Jims Records, and was later repackaged twice; firstly, with the Yeest EP on Relapse Records (and Drug Bust Records) in 1996 and secondly, with bonus tracks as Fisting The Dead…Again on Goat Sounds Records in 2005.
In 1995, Blood Duster produced the EP Yeest, featuring seven tracks, which started to show some more rock leanings. This had the new line-up of Forde, Fuller, guitarist Fin Allman and drummer Matt "Rizzo" (real name: Matt Maidorn). Rizzo's stay was short and he was replaced by Euan Heriot of both Fracture and Abramelin. This version of the band produced 1998's Str8 Outta Northcote album that featured a bizarre combination of whiskey-soaked Southern rock riffs and blasting grindcore. By now the band was one of Australia's best known metal acts and beginning to develop an underground following in other countries.
1998 saw Blood Duster again tour Australia-wide with Brutal Truth and recording shows for a planned double live album. Heriot left the band in early 1999 and Rout returned but after a few rehearsals was replaced again by Rizzo. Fin then quit the band in early 2000 and the live album was abandoned in favour of new material featuring the line-up of Jason P.C., Tony Forde, Matt Rizzo and guitarist Matt Collins. The album, controversially entitled, Cunt was released worldwide in 2001 and saw Blood Duster returning to a more percussive-driven grind style. Just before the release of the CD, the band added second guitarist Josh "JJ La Whore" Nixon from Canberra doom band Pod People.
After touring with The Dwarves in 2001, Blood Duster released the "Drink, Fight, Fuck" EP which featured the track "66.6FMONYOURRADIODIAL" that was used in a television commercial for Reflex copying paper. The following year the band suffered yet another line-up shuffle when Nixon was replaced by "Beltsy" (Belthrower), of Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare, although Nixon provided half of the electric guitars and an acoustic guitar track on the 2003 self-titled album. This album saw Blood Duster adopting a speedy, heavy boogie-influenced style, but with Forde's death metal vocals and featured special guests including original AC/DC singer Dave Evans and all three members of Melbourne band The Spazzys. There was controversy surrounding some of the artwork and some bonus CD-ROM content that was supposed to be included with the album, due to problems with Australian censors. Two further singles were released from this album - IWannaDoItWithADonna in 2003 and SixSixSixteen in 2004.
Most of 2004 was spent touring Australia, first with the Big Day Out and then doing many of their own shows. The Big Day Out saw them sharing a tour bus with Basement Jaxx and trading CDs with the Black Eyed Peas. The irony is that Blood Duster had always attended the Big Day Out festival in the past (fans may remember Tony Forde's impromptu stage appearance with 28 Days in 2003) but had always joked that they would never be asked to play. Following tours with The Dwarves and Pungent Stench in early 2005, Blood Duster toured across Europe and Japan to promote the release of their first DVD "The Shape of Death to Come". In 2006, the band issued the live album Kill, Kill, Kill in a limited edition of 500 copies. The album was recorded in Sydney in 1996 during a tour with Brutal Truth.
Blood Duster is now currently in pre-production for a proposed triple album. This album will consist of a rock album, a doom album and a grind album.
[edit] Recording set-up
On their website on December 14, 2006, Blood Duster revealed the set-up they used for recording. They use Marshall amps with a Royer 122 active ribbon microphone (for Belthrower) and an AEA ribbon microphone (for Matt Collins).
[edit] Band members
- Jason "P.C." Fuller - Bass (1991 - )
- Tony Forde - Vocals (1992 - )
- Matt Rizzo - Drums (1995, 1999 - )
- Matt "Lo Pants" Collins - Guitar (2000 - )
- Josh "JJ LaWhore" Nixon - Guitar (2000 - 2003)
- Belt Thrower - Guitar (2003 - )
- Fin - Guitars (1994 - 2000)
- Shane Rout - Drums (1992 - 1994)
- Brad Johnston - Guitar (1992 - 1994)
- Euan Heriot - Drums (1995 - 1999)
- Anthony Barry
- Troy Darlington - Guitar (1992 - 1992)
- Callum Wilson - Vocals (1992 - 1992)
- Brick - Drums (1991)
[edit] Discography
- Menstrual Soup (Demo, 1991)
- Fisting the Dead (EP, 1993)
- Yeest (EP, 1995)
- Yeest (1996)
- Str8 Outta Northcote (1998)
- Cunt (2001)
- D.F.F. (EP, 2002)
- Blood Duster (2003)
- IWannaDoItWithADonna (EP, 2003)
- Menstrual Soup re-issue (2004)
- SixSixSixteen (EP, 2004)
- Fisting the Dead... Again (2005)
- The Shape of Death to Come (DVD, 2005)
- Kill Kill Kill (2006)
