Remember the days when a rock album was dirty and even a little dangerous?
Too often these days over-production or the tendency to play things safe with a straight bat actually pull the rock out of rock and roll but not so with UK outfit The Dust Coda.
Led by Brisbane born vocalist/guitarist John Drake, The Dust Coda are not one of those bands and this is evident throughout their upcoming album Mojo Skyline which is set for release on March 26.
Recorded at Modern World Studios, Mojo Skyline takes you on a hard rock journey, containing five years worth of tracks battling the band’s raw intensity and innermost demons.
It is not an album for the faint-hearted, featuring up-tempo, high energy riffs coupled with the at times soulful yet still harsh extremities of Drake’s voice that channels the poetic nature of Led Zeppelin through to the nasty, vicious assault of Guns ‘N Roses.
Not to say The Dust Coda’s music rips from the very fabric of such artists, moreso they take bits and pieces from a plethora of rock and hard rock luminaries and put them through the Southern blender to come up with a rock persona dripping with harsh tales of loss and deliverance while also accentuating the finer points of rock.
This is definitely a guitar-driven album, led by Adam Mackie and ably backed up by Drake, with each song featuring a guitar-laden intro that ultimately succumbs to the sheer weight of drums and vocals that add layers and dexterity to a sound that snaps harder than a hangman’s noose.
This is pure, unvilified rock at it’s finest, featuring timeless rock numbers that are sure to remain stuck in your memory long after the album finishes.
From the already familiar feel of singles “Breakdown”, “Limbo Man” and “Jimmy 2 Times” to the softer, yet still rocky as fuck numbers like “Dream Alright”, Mojo Skyline has a little something for all connoisseurs of rock.
The fact that one of the ballads, – and those who know me know I HATE ballads, – “Rolling” is one of the highlights for me sums up the sonic intensity and ferocity of this album.
“Rolling” starts as a slow-burning rock number that begins full of energy but breaks down into an acoustic number before firing up again midway through, finishing with a truly epic guitar solo that epitomizes everything there is about the word epic in relation to a rock song. It displays every facet of The Dust Coda’s music psyche in one neatly wrapped package that should be the go-to-song for those seeking their first musical introduction with the band.
Other standouts are “I’ve Been Waiting”, “She’s Gone” and “Best Believe It”, each featuring an assortment of guitar solos and breakdowns that could sound forced or contrived in the hands of most bands but comes across as relevant and honest in the hands of The Dust Coda.
This album may not break significant ground musically but is a perfect example of how rock and roll music should sound when left to breath and rock on its own terms, which this album does in spades!
Watch “Limbo Man” below:
