Dunsmuir plan return to roots of heavy metal

The Dunsmuir album cover
The Dunsmuir album cover

Dunsmuir’s Brad Davis says the supergroup set out to get back to the roots of heavy metal on their self-titled debut album.

Along with the Fu Manchu bassist, Dunsmuir also features Clutch frontman Neil Fallon, ex Black Sabbath drummer Vinny Appice and The Company Band guitarist Dave Bone.

The record is due out on July 22 – and Davis reports the group delved deep into their influences when recording the album.

Davis tells Rock Radio NI: “We wanted to trim the fat and get back to what we consider the roots of heavy metal. Dunsmuir for me pays homage to my favourite heavy metal influences: Sabbath, Dio, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, as well as a lot of NWOBHM stuff. Of course this is all filtered through our own personal way of playing.”

He gives some insight into how the four members worked through the 10 tracks which appear on the final tracklist.

Davis continues: “Our process starts as a sort of musical assembly line. The basic riffs and parts generally originate from Dave or me. We did a good amount of rehearsing and arranging with Vinny. We would send Neil songs and he would work on them back home.

“Finally we got together for a pre production session where we really tore the songs apart and put them back together with musical and arrangement input from everyone.”

As for future tour plans, Davis adds: “I would love to but it would be a question of everyone’s schedules lining up. Hopefully some day.”

The vinyl album will come with a signed lithograph of the sleeve artwork and it’s available for pre-order now.

Dunsmuir tracklist

  1. Hung On The Rocks
  2. Our Only Master
  3. The Bats (Are Hungry Tonight)
  4. What Manner Of Bliss?
  5. Deceiver
  6. …And Madness
  7. Orb Of Empire
  8. Church Of The Tooth
  9. The Gate
  10. Crawling Chaos
Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.