Hard Excess – ‘The Nations Dust’

(Independent)

‘The Nations Dust’ is the debut album from Austrian Hard Rockers Hard Excess. Their brand of Hard Rock is heavily inspired by the NWOBHM movement, elements of Saxon, Judas Priest and even a slight touch of Iron Maiden amongst others can be clearly heard throughout this album.

Hard Excess are not reinventing the wheel here with their song writing and the songs clearly pay tribute to their musical heroes. The fact that they mash up quite a few influences into their sound helps give Hard Excess their own image rather falling into the imitation pit many current NWOBHM do at times. Therefore, making them a more interesting listen especially for people who listen to a lot of old school Rock and Metal.

Hard Excess create loud and rambunctious rock and roll which is destined to break necks in the live arena. The rampant guitars and vigorous rhythms create a ton of energy and I constantly kept thinking these songs were crowd pleasers and would be explosive live. There is a compelling edge to their impact that demands movement and involvement which ensures that they would be getting fans fist pumping, air guitaring and chanting along. Regular use of gang style vocal harmonies only boosts that feeling that these guys would kick some serious butt on the road!

‘The Nations Dust’ is not a commercial album in the slightest, but even so it is still easily accessible for fans of guitar driven Hard Rock. There are no slick choruses of cheap hooks with Hard Excess it’s all about the groove and energy. It’s heavy and powerful with a captivating feel to it that will definitely draw listeners in.

It’s not a perfect album and I do feel it misses a few stand out killer tracks to deliver that knockout punch to push ‘The Nations Dust’ into essential listening territory. Hard Excess do give us an energetic retro infused hard rock ride with a bang, still making it well worth genre fans time to check out. It’s an impactful debut with a quality that will definitely earn than some fans. Overall ‘The Nations Dust’ is a reasonably solid album which your average lover of Hard Rock will find plenty to enjoy and rock along to. It’s heavily inspired by bands of the seventies and eighties NWOBHM era so it’s guaranteed to appeal to folks who enjoy that style of music.

7/10

Essential Track - 'Revenge'

Review by Woody