Dunes “Take Me to The Nasties”

Not being that far up the road from me, I’ve been following Newcastle’s Dunes over the last couple of years and have seen them grow as a band through their Dunes EP1 and Dunes EP2. Over this time they’ve also supported the likes of Monster Magnet, Red Fang, Idles, The Picturebooks and if you follow them on social media you will see they’re always out playing shows.

Now after spending time in the studio at the back end of 2018 writing songs, everything has now come together in the form of their debut album “Take Me to The Nasties”.

The album kicks off with the title track, a 3 minute rocker that has a real hook of a riff that drives like a QOTSA “Era Vulgaris” track. The song flips between the big riff and some crunch guitar work, then rolls straight into a chorus that rocks like a classic rock tune, then that riff kicks back in and boom! This will set the place alight played live for sure.

“SOS” continues in the Queen’s vein with another hook of a riff and that “Hey, Hey, Hey” chant incorporated in a track that doesn’t stop rolling. There’s even the first signs of John throwing in some guitar solos.

There a good thick bluesy riff that kicks off “Been Expecting You” in the vein of Clutch and “Release the Clowns” has that robotic rock feel to it.

It slows down with “Phantom Head” and the band really show off their song writing skills. It starts off sounding a bit like a Screaming Trees track and it progressively gets heavier and heavier with a riff that crawls like a hurricane. Lots of a cymbals and a bass line that feels nice and dark. Definitely my recommended track from the album.

Like in various moments throughout the album, “Lantern” and “Denim Casket” draws from the 90’s Grunge era and throughout many of the songs I can pick out something that sounds like Death From Above 1979, which can only be a good thing. 

The album finishes off with the longest song “Everything is Blue” which mixes a bit of all their sound nicely. Probably their most stoner rock sounding track and it makes me think of the late 90’s Swedish stoner bands and the vocals have that echo like Josh Homme feel to them. The more I listen to it the more I long for more tracks like this.

For their debut album, there’s some really good stuff on here. “Take Me to The Nasties” has that early stoner rock in parts, robotic rock in others, even a bit of 90’s grunge in there, and it’s all mixed with some big riffs that hook you in. The album will make the Toon Army proud!

“Take Me to The Nasties” is out September 7th 2019 on Sapien Records.

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