With One Last Look Upon The Sky, Manchester, New Hampshire’s Dust Prophet has managed to craft something that’s akin to the epic thematic storytelling of Kyuss’ monstrous Sky Valley record told through the rawness of Wretch or Clutch’s self-titled. It’s a beautiful Desert Rawk opus that captures the spirit of those legendary generator parties and supplants the sunshine with the bleakness of a New England winter.
“A Storm Of Space-Part I” kicks off the Jason Stealth mixed and mastered album similar to the opening chapter to some some grand novel, foreshadowing that storm on the horizon like some slice of film score for a movie in your mind and when it comes in the form of “When The Axe Falls” you better buckle up because it’s about to be a bumpy ride. In the best way possible. It’s an almost seven minute jam that preludes even more epicness that seeps into your headspace like a rumbling leviathan with these slow, deliberate shreds from Otto Kinzel who also dispenses a vocal approach that’s full of maniacal musings which come off like Arthur Brown doing Mike Patton. And it works, really, REALLY well.
“Dear Mrs. Budd” is an unrelenting onslaught… until it’s not. Starting off amidst a flurry of fervor, “Dear Mrs. Budd” evolves into an eerie tale that’s like “Dead Skin Mask” put through a Grunge filter with “Song 4” providing seven and a half minutes of instrumental Noise/Space Rawk that’s a jam and then some as Sarah Wappler’s bass and Tyler MacPherson’s drumming form an undeniably strong rhythmic kaiju.
“Put To The Question” is a raucous Rawk dirge and then “The High Capital” is , as the kiddies say, simply gorge with additional rhythm and lead guitar on each provided by Bob Dwyer for that extra heft. Beginning as a guitar-driven mood piece with Santana-style licks, the track devolves into a nasty shredder accented by these gnarly sonic runs ascending and descending that eventually lead into some rad breakdowns and time signatures. But that’s not all! If ever there was a track here that really encapsulated the Desert Rawk sound it’d be “Hourglass” which is an unstoppable slab of rolling riffs and Sludge with MacPherson’s drums trading barbs with Kinzel’s axe.
And it all culminates with “Bury Me Before Noon” which brings the whole One Last Look Upon The Sky odyssey to a close with a mystical foray into the unknown that gets more spiritually dense as listeners get deeper and deeper in with the power of the riff ultimately riding steady until the very end.
One Last Look Upon The Sky drops on January 27th. Pre-orders are up now and can be perused and purchased when you click here or here and for all your streaming needs, head here and here. For the latest from Dust Prophet, follow them across their socials by heading here, here, or here.