Gasoline Guns - Rust'n'Dust (2016)

 

Cost: $2.00

One of those metal/rock'n'roll hybrids. Given the Gromm pedigree of two bandmembers, I was a little surprised they didn't delve deeper into black metal influences and go for more of a black'n'roll sound. Opener "Jokers 666" gave me a slight Murder Junkies vibe even though it's not terribly punky, nor it is significantly different from the rest of the disc. "Panzer Rock'n'Roll" is the best song, feeling like a tamer version of Gehennah. Speaking of which, the album's gruff, croaky vocals generally remind me of a less charismatic (occasionally they're more spirited) Slavic version of Mr. Violence.

This particular style is hard to mess up, and it's loose enough where it's easy for a band to create a fun hard-rocking atmosphere, which Gasoline Guns do. But it also reveals the limitations of this style--most of the best ideas in their musical repertoire are used up by the end of the third track, and afterward it just felt like a generically enjoyable Motörhead derivative. Two things also hurt this a bit. First, they don't go full throttle as much as you'd think--much like Motörhead themselves, they're often deceptively mid-paced. In a lot of places, the music doesn't seem as powerful as it could be, and injecting more filthiness and/or extremity into their sound would have helped a lot.

Based on the rest of the disc, you'd expect the closing "Ace of Spades" cover to be a faithful rendition, but they do a mellow, stripped down country-blues version with harmonica. It's the one place where their vocal style might be a bit of a detriment, but it's far more interesting than hearing an unnecessary straightforward cover for the umpteenth time.

I'm just so used to this type of music often being a quick and dirty side diversion from metal musicians looking to explore their rock'n'roll side, but there's a certain inescapable feeling of sideproject-ness here. But it's by no means bad, just a little underwhelming overall. I got my money's worth out of this from the track "Panzer Rock'n'Roll" alone, so I'm satisfied.