Interview with Bene from Dust Bolt

I’m a huge fan of German thrashers Dust Bolt and recently reviewed their new release, Awake The Riot – an awesome 12 track album of full speed thrash that I’ve had on repeat play ever since I got my hands on it.  I was therefore delighted when bassist Bene replied to my request for an interview for All About The Rock !

 

Interview with Bene of Dust Bolt
by Rich Dodgin

I was blown away by the new album – Awake The Riot – so a huge thank you for agreeing to this interview for All About The Rock, and to giving me and our readers a chance to learn more about the band and your music !

Thank you, I’m glad you liked the record.  We are also very happy with the result and it’s great for me to do this interview!

For those of our readers who don’t know much about Dust Bolt, can you give us a brief history of the group, and introduce us to the members of the band?

It all started with Lenny (our singer/guitarist) and me (Bene, the bass player) in 2006 as a kind of school project.  After one year of playing cover versions of our favourite punk and metal songs, our drummer Nico and guitar player Flo joined the band and the project became more serious.  We played a lot of shows over the following years and worked very hard until we finally got our record deal with Napalm Records from Austria. We released our debut Violent Demolition and played our asses off again and did tours through Europe and now we are glad to release the next record Awake the Riot.

Awake The Riot is a blistering album of thrash metal.  Can you tell us about the album?  How would you describe it musically, and in terms of subject matter?  How does it compare to your previous album (Violent Demolition) ?

One great difference between Awake The Riot and Violent Demolition is that all of the songs were written within a quite short period of time.  We heard the songs on the record before playing them live.  The songs on Violent Demolition all existed a long time before we went to the studio.  I think you can hear a step forward on Awake the Riot musically.  The song writing is more profound and varied.  Of course it is still straight forward in your face thrash metal, but we tried to vary more between the songs.  We added some slower parts and once even clean guitars which we wouldn’t have done two years ago.  We also tried to write lyrics to think about.  They deal in general with problems our society is confronted like environmental pollution but also with personal struggles one can have in today’s society.  But there is also a lot of badass thrash attitude involved.  I think the best example for that would be ‘Agent Thrash’, which is kind of a song for our friends and fans and the whole scene.

Awake The Riot is your second album with Napalm Records.  How are you finding working with them?

We are really happy about working with them.  They are very supportive in every way and they let us make every decision on our own.  To be told what songs to release, what cover to choose, when to go to the studio etc. was something we were concerned about when we signed up with the label but this really is not the case.  Napalm Records really are one of the big reasons for the success of Dust Bolt and we hope they will continue to work with us.

Have you guys got plans to tour the new album outside of Germany?  I’d love to see you guys come and play the UK – and Scotland in particular!

Playing in the UK is one of our biggest dreams. We already had one date in London confirmed, which was then cancelled because of problems with our bus.  Right now we don’t have concrete dates to go overseas but there are plans for an upcoming tour which I can’t really tell you more about right now because it’s still secret and not confirmed yet 😉  But we really plan and try everything to come to the UK next year!

Do you have any favourite German bands that you would advise people to check out?  Any other (non-German) bands you’re into right now?

I would really recommend to check out Toxic Waltz and Battlecreek from Bavaria and Space Chaser from Berlin.  They are all friends of us and make excellent thrash.  A band unknown to most people and really underrated is Generation Kill from New York.  It’s a band with Exodus‘s singer Rob Dukes.  We were on tour with them last year and their live performance and also their new record We’re all gonna Die! is really great.

Who are your musical influences?

For me personally Pantera with Rex Brown and Anthrax‘s Frank Bello were role models on the bass.  But also my bass teachers were very influential of course.  I can’t really speak for the others, but I think I can name Kreator and Sepultura as two of our major influences as a band.  They just hit the bulls eye when thrash metal is concerned.

How would you describe your own personal approach to music and life in general?

I am very open minded concerning music. I love metal but I also like to check out other styles. And not just grunge or hardcore, I also love good hip hop and my band band members all know that I’m a huge Nelly Furtado fan 😉  You know, I listen to anything I like and that’s also kind of my approach to life.  I do what I feel like doing.  It is no use to do what others tell you or trying to be someone else. It sounds corny but always be yourself.  Don’t try to live up to a projection others make of you but listen to your heart and follow it (man that was cheesy 😉 )

Finally, is there anything else you would like to say before we wrap up this interview?

Well, check out Awake the Riot.  We are very proud of the result and it’s gonna kick your fucking ass ;).  And we give our best to come to the UK as soon as possible!  Thanks for the support!