Band:	Dust Bolt
Album:	Mass Confusion
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	July 2016

01. SickxBrain
02. Mass Confusion
03. Allergy
04. Turned To Grey
05. Blind To Art
06. Mind The Gap
07. Exit
08. Empty Faces
09. Taking Your Last Breath
10. Portraits Of Decay
11. Masters Of War
12. Into The Void [bonus]

Some days it seems like thrash is one of the only metal subgenres that refuses to get a grip and evolve, but even in an era of edentulous epigones of Exodus, amidst a surfeit of sweatily-shouted shibboleths swiped from Slayer, bands like Dust Bolt arrive to issue reminders that thrash can still be fun and brash without being self-parodic and obnoxious.

To be sure, Dust Bolt can trace its lineage back to some very specific bands, but there is still a difference between "indebted" and "derivative," between "influence" and "imitation." Dust Bolt builds on thrash tropes rather than wrapping up filched Testament riffs in pretty paper and pretending to have produced something inspired. Where three bare chords would suffice, the band throws in a few extra notes to twist around the riff some more; where a simple, breakneck battering ram would drive a song to an expected early conclusion, the rhythm changes up just to explore a few more ideas. Songs like the unexpectedly brilliant "Mind The Gap" take detours that they don't need to for the sole purpose of departing from the mind-numbing thrash formula we've all heard ten thousand times by now.

Most of all, Dust Bolt possesses an engaging frontman with enough range and versatility to make every approach work for the band and open further avenues for exploration. Whatever kind of thrash you want, Lenny Breuss can adapt to it. Are you and your buddies looking to start a street fight? Lenny's John Bush at the drop of a hat. Politics and government got you down? Now he's Zetro. Are you watching a zombie movie marathon? Gama Bomb's Philly Byrne just showed up to scream at you about comic books. Do you really, really, really want a Pepsi? He's Mike Muir now. It might seem contradictory to praise Dust Bolt's chameleonic ability to incorporate aspects of other artists, given that I have spent my time listening for the streaks of original ideas found within Mass Confusion and lambasted the scores of dronish bands that cannot find their own voices, but I must continue with the even more contradictory sentiment that Dust Bolt finds the most original ways to do the same thing everybody else is doing.

The band's versatility gives it a much wider array of tools with which to stave off the ever-looming spectre of dull, middle-of-the-road revival thrash. Dust Bolt basically has everything in the world going for it. This band has the talent to crumble complex riffs before it like dust, and the production to house all that skill in an adequately life-giving form. The band's raw energy makes even the most lackluster tracks feel electrifying, and the songwriting, though still lacking inspiration in places and definitely hinting at as much as it shows, reveals that Dust Bolt has a lot more to offer than your run-of-the-mill millennial thrash band. The beautiful, brooding "Exit," savage "Empty Faces," explosive "Sick X Brain," and aforementioned "Mind The Gap" should provide enough evidence for that point.

With a few noteworthy exceptions, this year has yet to impress me with its thrash offerings, both from veterans and newcomers alike, so I'm glad to finally be pleasantly surprised. Fun is fun, but bands like Dust Bolt that also know how to take their music seriously seem to produce the best results.