Yeest

In recent years, Blood Duster has built up a suprisingly large following in the US with Relapse records doing much of the distributing. By "much", of course, I mean standard Relapse-fare, with the occasional t-shirt popping up in their online distro and nary a copy of the self-titled buried on the shelves of 1/16th of the country's FYEs. It's actually a total mystery to me how they've garnished so much acclaim, but I'll be fucked if I'm to go out and research this topic any further.

Hot on the heels of the band's comparatively straight-forward Menstrual Soup demo and the Fisting The Dead EP enters Yeest, the third official release of these aussie rock 'n grinders, and what could be considered the turning point for the group. This EP contains 7 tracks of southern sludge inspired death-grind with alternating high and low vocals and a penchant for chunky grooves and tounges planted firmly in cheeks. Tracks like Northcote, Chuck, and the 29 second Showered With Affection Pt. 2 pack a helluva wallop for their brevity, and are instantly memorable. Unfortunately, Strop is only 6 seconds long (which leaves a longing in the listener), and the closer Nasty Chicks starts off solid but degrades into a wall of pointless noise midway that dredges on for several minutes.

While I can't really reccomend you track down the original EP, I can't stress enough how awesome the repackaged version is, including the Fisting The Dead EP in its entirety and only slightly altered artwork. I'm anal about re-releases, so I felt a compulsion to include that last factoid. Blood Duster should appeal to fans of NOLA, grind, and death metal alike, and their later output will rope in an even greater demograph. Cheers!