Rusty Eye

Rust n' Roll

Written by: EW on 28/01/2010 13:11:49

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet I was recently contacted by one Mr. Rust of a band unbeknownst to me, Rusty Eye, hailing from some random little town called Hollywood, California. He has kindly provided me with a plentiful supply of his band's music and here and in the following reviews I will proceed to give my honest opinions on the 3 LP's and one live record provided. However first, a quick history: formed back in 1995 the band have gone through a variety of members, with Mr. Rust seemingly being the only original member, and to this point have released the aforementioned 3 LPs along with a handful of demos and live albums in a style based loosely around garage rock, a Maiden-esque heavy metal feel and a touch of punk.

Now, onto debut album "Rust n' Roll" released in 2000. At 11 songs in 33 minutes there is a considerable punk vibe throughout in a base of riffs that sit somewhere between 'uneasy' and 'settled' on top of a production job that reeks of the rehearsal room, and if my ears knew any better, a 4-track recording job. Despite the limitations in technology evident in every aspect of this recording Rusty Eye do at times add a pinch of spice via musical patterns such as the Discharge and Dead Kennedy-strained vocal chorus of "Who The Fuck Are You?!", some funky bass rhythms in "Phantasm" and nice Maiden-touches in their self-titled track, but I'm sorry to report many of these positives are undone by negatives apparent elsewhere. The female vocals in "Black Desires" are dreadfully weak and out of tune with the male voices, so much so that they detract from the rest of the song, ironically one of the most upbeat and thrashy on the record which were it not for the flat production would be something to shout about.

Thankfully the female vocals are absent for the remainder of the album to leave a collection of tracks which suggest a band still finding it's feet in the construction of some pretty standard hybrid punk-metal songs that are akin to the scratch tracks often deployed at the end of reissued albums from more developed bands to display their songs in the original bare-bones state. The dual vocals of Mr. Rust and Dr. Eye work to a reasonable extent in songs "I Don’t Care" but however hard they try injecting considerable quantities of energy is nigh-on impossible with a sound quality lacking in any real warmth. An interesting start to the band's full-length resume that continues in part two...

4

Download: Inside Her (Rings of Smoke), Rusty Eye
For The Fans Of: Iron Maiden, Discharge, Dead Kennedys
Listen: Myspace

Release date: 2000
Epoché Records

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.