Machine Cult

DUSTLORD‘s debut release “Machine Cult” certainly has a cult following in Colorado Springs – and it may actually be comprised of machines, because it sort of feels like you need to be one to sit through the entirety of this album. Whether you’re sober or barely capable of opening your bloodshot eyes, this is unfortunately not the enjoyable collection of bluesy riffing and thick distortion that it aspires to be.

The largest issue that plagues this release throughout its running time is the overall sloppiness of the instrumentation. The inconsistencies are not subtle, especially on the drums, which seem to struggle to even play their assigned parts with any sort of steady tempo, let alone flow comfortably or accent the music and riffwork. There are a few glimmers of creativity, but every decently-inspired drum fill or accent is preceded by a number of obvious, distracting mistakes. The guitar work is considerably more consistent but still not particularly solid, and overall the album has a very unpolished feeling of a jammy demo which, to be fair, seems to be the band's attitude and approach... but for a $20 vinyl? It feels lazy. At least the bass guitar is decent.

This laziness and sloppiness is insidious and neuters the potential heaviness of the album. For slower genres of metal, much of the power and energy behind the riffs come from members being closely in sync with each other, both in rhythm and dynamics. Without a sufficient level of tightness, the crushing strength behind each note is sapped as its impact is spread across many milliseconds of the band members playing the note at different times. This lack of sufficient synchronization weakens the songs in a way that downtuning alone cannot solve. That said, the amp tone is at least decent, though the recording of it does no justice.

Speaking of recording, another detractor to the overall power of the album is a fairly low-quality mix and the lack of a good stereo image. Though it sounds like there was an attempt to add width to the drums and guitar, a lack of fidelity and a bit of noticeable phasing ensures that the overall listening impression is more of a mono signal than a stereo one. Considering the band had the budget to release this on vinyl, it’s annoying that the mix is so barebones and dry.

The compositions themselves rarely ascend beyond a mediocre level. Mundane riffs can sometimes be overlooked in the face of good songwriting, solid musicianship, good vocals, delicious amps, and/or an engrossing mix, but since this release has none of those, we are left with just a collection of generally tiresome riffs. There aren’t really any bad riffs on here, but the good riffs are few and far between, with the band pretty content to just wail on the same bluesy, pentatonic musings that we’ve heard played better by hundreds of bands over the past fifty years. The riffs are generally strung together haphazardly, with the overall compositions going nowhere in particular and punctuated with the repetition of passages that really don’t warrant revisitation. Not only are the riffs mundane, the vocals are incredibly sparse, which is a shame because they’re actually quite good – closely reminiscent of EYEHATEGOD.

All that said, DUSTLORD can at least competently write riffs and put them together coherently, and they definitely have an eye for the necessary aesthetic and approach to make it work. There is no reason that the band couldn’t release something great in the future, but they’re going to need more focus, drive, and a lot more practice to get to that level. The material pressed on “Machine Cult” is generally uninteresting and played poorly. This is not a good addition to your music library, unless you really want to support local musicians (which is fair) or you are somehow not satiated by the dozens of albums released in this (oversaturated) genre over the past year. Does the world (or even Colorado) really need another sloppy stoner doom band?

Originally written for ColoradoMetalReview.com