Blood Duster was an Australian
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. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...
and
stoner rock
Stoner rock, also known as stoner metal or stoner doom, is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of doom metal with psychedelic rock and acid rock. The genre emerged during the early 1990s and was pioneered foremost by Kyuss and Sleep. ...
band from
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
. Their name came from the song "Blood Duster" by
John Zorn
John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...
, from the 1989 album ''
Naked City''.
History
Formation
The band was formed in 1991 by Jason Fuller (aka Jason PC) (bass), Anonymous (vocals and guitar), and Andrew Brown (drums). After completion of their first demo, Anonymous resigned and was replaced by Troy Darlington and Callum Wilson.
A self-released demo recording in 1992 was titled ''Menstrual Soup''.
By the time the band recorded their first EP, Wilson and Darlington had been replaced by Tony Forde, Shane Rout, and Brad Johnston.
''Fisting the Dead'' (1993)
''Fisting the Dead'', the band's debut, is a straightforward
grindcore
Grindcore is an extreme fusion genre of heavy metal and hardcore punk that originated in the mid-1980s, drawing inspiration from abrasive-sounding musical styles, such as thrashcore, crust punk, hardcore punk, extreme metal, and industrial. G ...
EP that featured 25 tracks, released in mid-1993. According to Rosemary Overell, "They are largely credited with establishing Melbourne's gore- and porno-grindcore aesthetic".
The tracks were initially recorded for a proposed
split album
A split album (or split) is a music album that includes tracks by two or more separate artists. There are also singles and EPs of the same variety, which are often called "split singles" and "split EPs" respectively. Split albums differ from "var ...
on the Wild Rags label with other tracks by Impetigo and Meat Shits.
The track "Derek" refers to a character played by
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...
in his 1987 cult film ''
Bad Taste
''Bad Taste'' is a 1987 New Zealand science-fiction comedy horror film directed, produced and filmed by Peter Jackson, who also stars in and co-wrote the screenplay, along with Tony Hiles and Ken Hammon. Independently produced on a low budge ...
'', which was "heavily influenced by the late-'80s grindcore of such Earache label bands as Carcass and Napalm Death."
In 1996, the album was released in the US as bonus tracks on the U.S. CD issue of the group's 1995 EP ''
Yeest'', on
Relapse Records
Relapse Records is an American independent record label based in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Matthew F. Jacobson in 1990. The label features many grindcore, death metal, metalcore and sludge metal artists.
History
The label was ...
and Drug Bust Records. In 2001, it was reissued on vinyl with ''Yeest'' on the B-side.
In 2005, the album was reissued as ''Fisting the Dead... Again'' on bassist Jason Fuller's label, with bonus tracks, on Goat Sounds Records.
In 2008, it was reissued on Stomp Records with ''Yeest'', the compilation tracks, and live tracks from a gig at the Great Britain Hotel on 18 August 1993 as bonus tracks.
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
's Tom Forget described the 2008 version: "A noticeable splatter seems to accompany every spin of Blood Duster's mammoth reissue".
He felt that it "traces the band's early-90s grind heyday, before elements of Southern and stoner rock groove seeped into their toxic sound."
1995–2000
In 1995, Blood Duster released the EP ''
Yeest'', which started to show some more rock leanings. The band toured Australia including Canberra in November 1995.
The band next 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. The next album, controversially entitled ''Cunt'', was released worldwide in 2001 and saw Blood Duster returning to a more percussive-driven grind style. It was also around this time that the band appeared in the music video for the song "
Thunderbirds Are Coming Out
''www.tism.wanker.com'' is the fourth studio album by Australian alternative rock group TISM (This Is Serious Mum), released in June 1998. The album peaked at number 26 on the ARIA charts.
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1998, the album was nominat ...
" by fellow Australian band
TISM
TISM (an acronym of This Is Serious Mum) are a seven-piece anonymous alternative rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia on 30 December 1982 by vocalist/drummer Humphrey B. Flaubert, bassist/vocalist Jock Cheese and keyboardist/vocalist Eu ...
.
2001–2017
After touring with
The Dwarves
The Dwarves are an American punk rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois and based in San Francisco, California as of 2009.Gentile, John (2009)Interview: Blag Dahlia of the Dwarves, ''The A.V. Club'', April 13, 2009, retrieved February 7, 2010
...
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
eponymous
An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Usage of the word
The term ''epon ...
''Blood Duster'' album was released in 2003 and featured special guests including original
AC/DC
AC/DC (stylised as ACϟDC) are an Australian Rock music, rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm Young, Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and Heavy metal ...
singer
Dave Evans,
Jay Dunne from
28 Days, and all three members of Melbourne band
The Spazzys
The Spazzys were an Australian pop punk band, formed in 2000 by twins Katerina (guitar, lead vocals) and Lucy (bass, backing vocals) Ljubicic (AKA Kat and Lucy Spazzy), with their schoolmate Alice McNamara (Ally Spazzy) on drums and vocals. Thei ...
. 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
The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typically in January of eac ...
festival and then their own shows.
[}] Following tours with The Dwarves and
Pungent Stench
Pungent Stench is a death metal band from Vienna, Austria, formed in 1988. Their last known lineup consists of Martin Schirenc (vocals/guitar), Danny Vacuum (vocals/bass), and Mike G. Mayhem (drums). Pungent Stench achieved early on prominence in ...
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 guest 1970s balladeer and actor
Darryl Cotton
Darryl Grant Cotton (4 September 1949 27 July 2012) was an Australian pop, rock singer-songwriter, television presenter and actor. He was a founding member of Australian rock group Zoot in 1965, with Beeb Birtles, and were later joined by Rick ...
.
''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.
In October 2012, the group released ''KVLT'', a
vinyl album
A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near ...
, which had been deliberately rendered unplayable; its producer Jason PC explained "It's kind of a statement piece ... We made the album, sat down and listened to it, thought: 'Yep, that's perfect, let's wreck it'."
Blood Duster played their final show on 9 December 2017 at the
Corner Hotel
The Corner Hotel in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria, Australia, is a remodelled 19th-century pub which has been a live music venue since the 1940s and, since 1995, a popular rock music venue and rooftop bar.Johnston, Chris. "Corner ...
, Richmond.
Members
Final members
*Jason Fuller - bass, vocals (1991-2017)
*Tony Forde - vocals (1993-2017)
*Matt Rizzo - drums (1994-1995, 1999-2007, 2014-2017)
*Matt Collins - guitar (2000-2017)
Former members
*Brick - drums (1991)
*Callum Wilson - vocals (1992)
*Troy Darlington - guitar (1992)
*Shane Rout - drums (1993-1994, 1999)
*Brad Johnson - guitar (1994)
*Euan Heriot - drums (1995-1999)
*Fin Allman - guitar (1995-2000)
*Josh Nixon - guitar (2000-2003)
*Scott Pritchard - guitar, vocals (2002-2015)
*David Haley - drums (2007-2014)
Timeline
Discography
Albums
EPs and singles
References
External links
Official Blood Duster Web SiteBEAT 2007 InterviewBlood Duster Official Facebook page
{{Authority control
Musical groups established in 1991
Victoria (Australia) musical groups
Australian heavy metal musical groups
Deathgrind musical groups
Grindcore musical groups
Relapse Records artists
Australian stoner rock musical groups
Musical quintets
1991 establishments in Australia