Easily their most well-known release, partially in part due to the Steve Albini production and Godflesh/Jesu's Justin Broadrick on drums, Dustbowl lives up to its legendary status, with the band perfecting the murky, hazy sound of LP. It’s rather unfair that the album is recognized just for those two individual's contributions, because the album as a whole is what is truly praise-worthy.
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The cover art and title are a great metaphor for the songs contained on Dustbowl.While LP was all black leather meth fueled motorcycle gangs, this is the sound of outlaw desert isolation.It is paranoia and sand, hallucinogens and violence.The references in "Tequila" to someone who has false papers and can "change your name, change your face" fits this ethos perfectly.
However, the album is as much Fistful of Dollars as it is Road Warrior:for all the post-apocalyptic dystopia there's a fair share of the American old west, presented through a distinctly post-industrial British filter.There's a mutant country twang to be heard on tracks like "108," and while it is buried in reverb and distortion, lyrics like "I'm gonna whip that stubborn horse" bring it to light.
Perhaps most well known on here, (due to Fear Factory's industrial metal cover) is "Dog Day Sunrise" which, like "Shadow Hills California" on LP, is one of the closest things the band ever came to pop in this era, but only in the sense that it is a catchy, earworm-type song.Fear Factory's version was adequate for what it was, but nothing touches the original.
The album is its weakest in a certain same-ness that pervades it.While on one hand it feels more conceptually and sonically cohesive than its predecessor did, it also feels like they took less chances.Again, this is a very minor critique that is the definition of nit-picking, but one I figured I should at least acknowledge.
It does, however, mix up the feel:while there might be a similar brown sonic palette of shrill guitars and distorted bass used throughout, the metallic pounding "Skin Drill" and "Bugged" convey a different vibe than the more dirgy, noise rock of "Cult of Coats" and "Adrenecide."It is not as drastic as the funeral drone of "White Bastard" and the thrash of "Snuff Rider MC," both appearing together on LP.
In the end, however, Dustbowl is the better album.While there are a few moments across the 14 tracks that aren’t as memorable as the taut, concise LP, the overall greater level of polish and songwriting that appear here push it ahead, just by a nose.Both albums are still, in my opinion, essential.
I should acknowledge that Steven Hess’ recent Facebook love for this album is what motivated me to revisit Dustbowl as well as LP.Having owned them for a number of years, it was great to pull them out again and hear them in their entirety.
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