Blood Duster
Encyclopedia
Blood Duster is a extreme metal
/stoner rock
band from Melbourne
, Australia
. Their name comes from the song "Blood Duster" by John Zorn
, from the 1989 album Naked City
.
label Bizarre Leprous Productions. Blood Duster never played live with this line-up and soon Barry was ejected. A short-lived experimental line-up consisted of Fuller, Brown, and newcomer Troy Darlington (guitar) Darlington lasted only for a short time before he was fired. This line-up played their debut show at the Sarah Sands Hotel in front of 300 fans, supporting Christbait.
Wilson and Darlington were replaced in Blood Duster by Tony Forde (vocals) of death metal
band Entasis, and Brad Johnston (guitar), formerly of death metal band Hecatomb, which also supplied drummer Shane Rout. Brown then quit due to medical reasons. This line-up recorded 1993's Fisting the Dead, after which both Rout and Johnston left to work on Rout's side-project, a black metal
band called Abyssic Hate.
Fisting the Dead is a straight-forward grindcore
EP that featured 25 tracks. It was later re-released twice: first repackaged with the Yeest EP on Relapse Records
and Drug Bust Records in 1996, and later with bonus tracks as Fisting the Dead... Again on Goat Sounds Records in 2005.
In 1995, Blood Duster released the EP Yeest, which started to show some more rock leanings. This featured the new line-up of Forde, Fuller, guitarist Fin Allman, and drummer Matt Rizzo (aka Matt Maidhorn). The release of the EP was followed by an Australian tour with Brutal Truth
. Rizzo's first 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, which featured a bizarre combination of Southern rock riffs and blasting grindcore.
In 1998, Blood Duster again toured Australia with Brutal Truth, and recorded 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. Allman quit the band in early 2000 and the live album was abandoned in favour of new material featuring the line-up of Fuller, Forde, 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 Nixon from Canberra
doom band Pod People. It was also around this time that the band appeared in the music video for the song "Thunderbirds Are Coming Out
" by fellow Australian band TISM
.
After touring with The Dwarves in 2001, Blood Duster released the "Drink, Fight, Fuck" EP, which featured the track "66.6FMONYOURRADIODIAL," used in a television commercial for Reflex copying paper, along with three songs in the pre-gap. The following year the band replaced Nixon with "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. Forde also joined The Day Everything Became Nothing in 2002 and has since recorded three CDs with that group.
The eponymous Blood Duster album was released in 2003 and featured special guests including original AC/DC
singer Dave Evans
, Jay Dunne
from 28 Days
, 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
festival and then their own shows. 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.
In 2006, Blood Duster began pre-production for a proposed triple album consisting of a disc each of death metal, grind, and drone doom, with guests including Darren Hayes
from Savage Garden
and 70s balladeer and actor Darryl Cotton
. Lyden Nå (Norwegian for The Now Sound) was released in April 2007 as a double album, with the third disc available as additional downloadable content.
Matt Rizzo was dismissed from Blood Duster before their tour with Napalm Death
in September 2007. He was replaced by Dave Haley
of the Hobart band Psycroptic
.
Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
/stoner rock
Stoner rock
Stoner rock or stoner metal is a subgenre of heavy metal, combining elements of psychedelic rock, blues rock, traditional heavy metal and doom metal. Stoner rock is typically slow-to-mid tempo and features a bass-heavy sound, melodic vocals, and 'retro' production...
band from Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Their name comes from the song "Blood Duster" by John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
, from the 1989 album Naked City
Naked City (album)
Naked City is an album released on Nonesuch Records in 1990 by John Zorn, featuring the band of the same name. The album was also released as part of Naked City: The Complete Studio Recordings on Tzadik Records in 2005....
.
History
The band was formed in Glenroy, Victoria, in August 1991 by Jason Fuller (aka Jason PC) (bass), Anthony Barry (vocals and guitar), and Andrew 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, and was re-released in 2004 on CzechCzech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
label Bizarre Leprous Productions. Blood Duster never played live with this line-up and soon Barry was ejected. A short-lived experimental line-up consisted of Fuller, Brown, and newcomer Troy Darlington (guitar) Darlington lasted only for a short time before he was fired. This line-up played their debut show at the Sarah Sands Hotel in front of 300 fans, supporting Christbait.
Wilson and Darlington were replaced in Blood Duster by Tony Forde (vocals) of death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
band Entasis, and Brad Johnston (guitar), formerly of death metal band Hecatomb, which also supplied drummer Shane Rout. Brown then quit due to medical reasons. This line-up recorded 1993's Fisting the Dead, after which both Rout and Johnston left to work on Rout's side-project, a black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
band called Abyssic Hate.
Fisting the Dead is a straight-forward grindcore
Grindcore
Grindcore is an extreme genre of music that started in the early- to mid-1980s. It draws inspiration from some of the most abrasive music genres – including death metal, industrial music, noise and the more extreme varieties of hardcore punk....
EP that featured 25 tracks. It was later re-released twice: first repackaged with the Yeest EP on Relapse Records
Relapse Records
Relapse Records is an independent record label based in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Matthew F. Jacobson in 1990.-History:The label was started by Matthew F. Jacobson in August, 1990 in his parents' basement in Aurora, Colorado...
and Drug Bust Records in 1996, and later with bonus tracks as Fisting the Dead... Again on Goat Sounds Records in 2005.
In 1995, Blood Duster released the EP Yeest, which started to show some more rock leanings. This featured the new line-up of Forde, Fuller, guitarist Fin Allman, and drummer Matt Rizzo (aka Matt Maidhorn). The release of the EP was followed by an Australian tour with Brutal Truth
Brutal Truth
Brutal Truth is an American grindcore band from New York City, formed by ex-Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, and Stormtroopers Of Death bass guitarist Dan Lilker in 1990. The group disbanded in 1999, but reformed in 2006 and continue to release new music.-History:...
. Rizzo's first stay was short and he was replaced by Euan Heriot of both Fracture and Abramelin
Abramelin (band)
Abramelin was an Australian death metal band, notable as one of the first bands of its kind in the country and one of the main influences on the development of Australian heavy metal music in the early 1990s...
. This version of the band produced 1998's Str8 Outta Northcote, which featured a bizarre combination of Southern rock riffs and blasting grindcore.
In 1998, Blood Duster again toured Australia with Brutal Truth, and recorded 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. Allman quit the band in early 2000 and the live album was abandoned in favour of new material featuring the line-up of Fuller, Forde, 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 Nixon from Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
doom band Pod People. It was also around this time that the band appeared in the music video for the song "Thunderbirds Are Coming Out
Thunderbirds Are Coming Out
"Thunderbirds Are Coming Out" is the name of a single by TISM. It featured memorable video clip of 30 bands all playing the song. The bands are shown one at a time by use of a dolly shot and ends just as TISM are on screen.-Song:...
" by fellow Australian band TISM
TISM
TISM was a seven piece anonymous alternative rock band from Melbourne, Australia. The group was formed in 1982 and enjoyed a large underground/independent following. Their third album Machiavelli and the Four Seasons reached the Australian national top 10 in 1995...
.
After touring with The Dwarves in 2001, Blood Duster released the "Drink, Fight, Fuck" EP, which featured the track "66.6FMONYOURRADIODIAL," used in a television commercial for Reflex copying paper, along with three songs in the pre-gap. The following year the band replaced Nixon with "Beltsy" Belthrower, of Melbourne hardcore
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
band Mindsnare
Mindsnare
Mindsnare are an Australian hardcore band from Melbourne, Victoria. Formed in 1993 under the name Mad Circle, their music is a blend of traditional "old school" hardcore punk and crossover metal, and as such has seen them play alongside metal bands like Kreator and Ringworm, as well as more...
, although Nixon provided half of the electric guitars and an acoustic guitar track on the 2003 self-titled album. Forde also joined The Day Everything Became Nothing in 2002 and has since recorded three CDs with that group.
The eponymous Blood Duster album was released in 2003 and featured special guests including original AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
singer Dave Evans
Dave Evans (singer)
Dave Evans is an Australian singer best known as the original lead singer of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC from 1973-1974.-AC/DC:...
, Jay Dunne
Jay Dunne
Jay Dunne was the singer of Melbourne punk rock band 28 Days. He is often referred to as 28 Jay and is respected throughout Australia for his hip hop/rap ability and style....
from 28 Days
28 Days
28 Days are a punk rock band formed in Bacchus Marsh, Australia during 1997. At their career peak, they had a #1 album on the Australian ARIAnet Albums Chart and also a #12 single on the ARIAnet Singles Chart....
, 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
Big Day Out
The Big Day Out is an annual music festival held in several cities in Australia and New Zealand in late January. It started in Sydney in 1992, spread to Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth by 1993, with the Gold Coast and Auckland joining in 1994...
festival and then their own shows. Following tours with The Dwarves and Pungent Stench
Pungent Stench
Pungent Stench was a darkly humorous death metal band from Vienna, Austria, which formed in 1988. Their last known lineup consists of Martin Schirenc , El Gore , and Alex Wank...
in early 2005, Blood Duster toured across Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
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.
In 2006, Blood Duster began pre-production for a proposed triple album consisting of a disc each of death metal, grind, and drone doom, with guests including Darren Hayes
Darren Hayes
Darren Stanley Hayes is a UK-based Australian singer-songwriter. Hayes was the front man and singer of the pop duo Savage Garden, whose 1997 album Savage Garden peaked at No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in United Kingdom and No. 3 in United States...
from Savage Garden
Savage Garden
Savage Garden were an Australian pop rock performance and songwriting duo. Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones formed the group in Brisbane, Queensland in 1994...
and 70s balladeer and actor Darryl Cotton
Darryl Cotton
Darryl Cotton is an Australian pop singer, television presenter and actor. Cotton is best known as a founding member of Australian rock group Zoot in 1968, along with Beeb Birtles, Rick Brewer and, later, Rick Springfield....
. Lyden Nå (Norwegian for The Now Sound) was released in April 2007 as a double album, with the third disc available as additional downloadable content.
Matt Rizzo was dismissed from Blood Duster before their tour with Napalm Death
Napalm Death
Napalm Death are a death metal band formed in Birmingham, England in 1981. While none of its original members remain in the group, the lineup of vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway, bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris and drummer Danny Herrera has remained consistent for most of the band's ...
in September 2007. He was replaced by Dave Haley
Dave Haley
Dave Haley is the drummer with Australian death metal band Psycroptic. Haley formed the band in 1999 with his brother Joe, bass guitarist Cameron Grant and vocalist Matthew Chalk. Chalk was subsequently replaced by Jason Peppiatt. Previously, the Haleys were members of Disseminate.Haley has...
of the Hobart band Psycroptic
Psycroptic
-External links:**...
.
Current members
- Jason Fuller (Jason P.C.) – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
(1991–present) - Tony Forde (Tone Bone) – vocals (1992–present)
- Matt Collins (Matty Lowpantz) – guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
(2000–present) - Scott Pritchard (Belt Thrower) – guitar (2003–present)
- Dave Haley – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
(2007–present)
Former members
- Josh Nixon – guitar (2000–2003)
- Matt Rizzo – drums (1995, 1999–2007)
- James Rose – guitar (1999–2000)
- Fin Allman – guitar (1994–2000)
- Shane Rout – drums (1992–1994)
- Brad Johnston – guitar (1992–1994)
- Euan Heriot – drums (1995–1999)
- Anthony Barry – vocals, guitar (1991–1992)
- Troy Darlington – guitar (1992 - 1992)
- Callum Wilson – vocals (1992 - 1992)
- Andrew Brown (Brick) – drums (1991)