Duel – Breakfast (with) Death
Duel is a heavy rocking, stoner metal quartet based in Austin, Texas. The band formed in 2015 and released four studio albums up to this point. Breakfast (with) Death is their fifth record on Heavy Psych Sounds Records and was released on July 5th, 2024. The current lineup consists of: Tom Frank on guitars and lead vocals, Jeff Henson on guitars and backing vocals, Patrick Pascucci on drums, and Drew Potter on bass and backing vocals. The record consists of nine tracks and clocks in around thirty eight minutes.
The first thing that is evident about Breakfast (with) Death is the musical style shift in their sound. These songs are more old school metal and thrashier than the other previous records. Duel still deliver their proto metal trademark essence that was prominent mainly on their first two records 2016s Fears Of The Dead and 2017s Witchbanger but the delivery is much more combatitive. The production is more raw and dirty with this release but it sounds very authentic. The band opted for a live in the studio attack which worked extremely well with these songs. Guitarist Jeff Henson has been recording the band since the beginning and clearly has their sound dialed in on this one. My teenage thirst for thrash metal is quenched with this record. The way Duel are able to articulate the riffs and bring back the 80’s and early 90’s classic metal sounds while remaining grounded in their heavy rock identity is pretty amazing.
The first two tracks “Ancient Moonlight” and “Satan’s Invention” have those old school metal chugging riffs accompanied by the pounding drums. Tom Frank has that chameleon voice that fits each song precisely, but never overdone. The background vocals they incorporate are excellent too like on “Satan’s Invention.” The fury of guitar leads accent the thrashy metal rhythms nicely. The song structures are concise and they even have some Iron Maiden type dual guitar harmonies going on. The third song “Chaos Reigns” is viscous! Heavy, bombardment riffing and double bass drumming too. “Fallacy” starts with a drum fill and goes into a nice galloping mid tempo riff. A straight forward rocking metal song with strong vocals and excellent guitar leads too. The fifth song “Pyro” has a punk rock vibe akin to old Misfits and Ramones. Gang vocals in the chorus and some noisy guitar nuances over the verses are executed naturally.
“Berserker” has an old school metal sound to it with nice guitar melodies and singing. Breakfast (with) Death has a very nostalgic feel to all the songs but it doesn’t sound dated. The band deliver in a big way and continues to progress but not as linear as most bands do. Their third and fourth records, 2019’s Valley Of Shadows and 2021’s In Carne Persona explored some more softer, melodic, and more experimental elements and one would expect that to continue with each new release. However, Duel decided to strip things back down and accentuate the hard hitting drumming style of Patrick Pascucci. I applaud the band for this decision because they really delivered a stellar record. “Tigers Of Destruction” and “Greet The Dead” both carry the heavy metal torch perfectly, which then leads to the punishing closure “Burn The Earth.” The most angry song on the record, “Burn The Earth” chugs along with scorching conviction. Tom Franks vocals are both nasty and haunting. The music is a cascade of eerie destruction and complete devastation.
I find myself revisiting this record quite often since it was released and I must say, I’m very impressed! Duel combine a lot of different heavy musical styles and deliver a sound that is refreshing, familiar, and unique. It will be interesting to see where the band will go from here. They have really found their groove on this one and I expect more great things from this band in the coming years.
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/bands/duel.htm
