Review Summary: Bugdust deliver a debut that provides pure, merciless rock that's fun as hell throughout.
“Step right up and face me, win or lose
There’s no other face I’d rather bruise
With those blood shot eyes, those broken bones
We’re gonna take this mother out!”
And so go the lyrics of
Take This Mother Out, an unrelenting rock number which sublimely epitomizes the lyrical and musical styling of Bugdust – a blistering live act who know how to write a pub anthem or ten.
Hailing from the outer suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, this hard rock act finally release their long-awaited debut
Welcome to the City of Snakes to their sparsely numbered yet all too faithful fans. Produced by Grammy award winner Neil Kernon – whose credits include The Sex Pistols, Queen, Cannibal Corpse and Judas Priest – this electrifying debut takes a snapshot of their blistering live performances and translates it faithfully to the humble compact disc. On previous EP’s, the band left little time for long winded ballads or lengthy epics, and delivered nothing but sweaty hard rock in the vain of Motley Crue and Black Sabbath, which is a principle thankfully reapplied here. In short – put the lighters away people, because there’s not a ballad in sight.
The record basically travels along the same line throughout, and considering the consistency of the song quality, this is quite commendable, seeing as it’d be quite hard to make an album comprised entirely of punk rock anthems yet still retain the audience’s attention throughout. Opener
Speed Queen kicks off proceedings with a bang, and from then on it never really lets up, with the equally exciting
Try It reinforcing the opener’s sentiment – that of drinking beer and starting fights. In fact, this seems to be a recurring theme on the LP, with tracks like the aforementioned
Take This Mother Out and the surreptitiously enjoyable
Mexican Death Squad warning all posers to stand aside or feel the wrath – all accompanied by blazing drums and crunching riffs of course.
Opening single
Girls, Girls, Girls, Girls, Girls takes a crude, simplistic riff and takes it to town with some fun lyrics and some all-in backing vocals.
Teenage Lust also proves to be fun as hell, yet with slightly darker lyrical content –
“Live under the radar
Among the hunters of fame
Numb face, numb life baby
Sick of feeling the same
Cocaine and teenage lust
Makes you disappear…”
Fight anthem
Disaster starts with an eerie Spanish guitar, before settling into the usual aural insanity, while darker track
Sixty Days of Nights – which featured on a previous EP – returns bigger and better than ever, with an extended intro making the carnage that appears later stand out like a sore rash. Track
Butterflies reeks of mid-90’s alternative rock, but proves to be the most lyrically earnest number on the album, even if musically it’s still intent on blowing your head off. In fact, the majority of the album never lets go for more than a fleeting moment of musical sincerity, opting for hard-edged riffs and blistering drum work. Even the lyrically heartfelt
My Girl – which appears to tell the story of a desperate man being pushed to unthinkable lengths for his love – has a musical aggression that can only be described as unrelenting.
And unrelenting – as a whole –
Welcome to the City of Snakes proves to be. These hard rockers demonstrate an ability to indulge the listener in merciless riffs and 3 minute track times, yet show just enough pure energy and raw excitement to make it seem like the days of boring, criminally watered-down commercial rock are living on numbered days. And considering the title of manliest mainstream rock act lies with the likes of Nickleback and Daughtry, one can only hope these numbered days are depleting very quickly indeed.
