Lenny Bruce - Guitars and Vocals for Dust Bolt

1. The new album, “Trapped in Chaos,” is one of the best Thrash records in years. Congratulations. Every song is solid, but my personal favorites are “Another Day in Hell” and “Dead Inside.” Do the guys in the band have any favorites on the record?

Lenny Bruce: Thank you very much for the kind words! Yes it´s interesting, because everybody has it´s own favourites of course yes! That might have different reasons. Rhythm to my madness is my favourit song musically and when it comes to thrash, but Another day in hell or the Bad Ad are two song I personally relate a lot to. Especially lyric wise. But every song on this record has some kind of story beyond – I think that might be what makes them as strong! I´m really excited to see, hear and feel how people relate to the different songs and stories. As we released Another day in hell, many people sent us really open and honest personal messages. That really gave us the feeling we did the right thing. I remember few days ago when we rehearsed the song – suddenly it was something different and playing it felt more important than ever to me

2. Which bands or musicians - - Thrash or otherwise - - would you name as influences? Or if not influences - - musicians you admire?

LB: Oh thats nearly impossible to tell. I can find pleasure in any kind of music. As long as it is telling something and it moves me. For Trapped in Chaos we wanted to become better songwriters. So we listened to a lot of stuff with actually GOOD SONGS. No matter which genre. For metal I admire a lot of the classics – Dio, Black Sabbath, Metallica and so on. Apart from that I find my home in (hardcore) punk music – Fugazi, Bad Brains, Black Flag, .. – such as Blues music.

3. You made your American debut touring with Obituary in 2018. How do the U.S. crowds and venues compare to Europe and other parts of the world?

LB: We were overwhelmed by the feedback of the crowds! It´s just a different feeling in the states and totally different venues most of the time. People have been awesome. Moshpits and Circle Pits every night! Many knew us before, many didn´t. But in the end I felt like they were absolutely happy to have spent 40 minutes with four young thrashers from Bavaria, Germany. Can´t wait to go back and play the new songs!

4. What are your touring plans in 2019?

LB: First of all we are going to do Germany and 3 shows in Switzerland and some summer festivals. Can´t talk about the rest yet but we wanna get busy and go ANYWHERE.

5. How has the Metal scene changed for a Thrash band, if at all, since you got started in 2007?

LB: Different trends come and go – honestly I don´t care too much about that. When we were young we found it funny to be the old school guys, while everybody listened to Metalcore which became huge. Nowadays I just don´t care about it anymore. I go to shows that I wanna go, sometimes I go to shows even I do not know a single band (sometimes you get surprised!) and I listen to what I like. One thing that happened is that this “Thrash Revival” many people speak of, got really put into the pizza and beer cans fun-metal corner , which we never liked too much. We were put it in that cliche too, by some media and press. But now I feel like the metal and punk with attitude is getting stronger again! There are many cool bands out there who take some good things from hardcore, play it in a thrashy - way with some kind of death metal sound. That´ s exciting! And I´ m happy about bands like Code Orange or Turnstile, who just do new things and aren´ t afraid of being hated. I think we´re on a good way with heavy music.

6. Back to the album, what were some of the lyrical themes you were going for on this record?

LB: Music and lyrics go in one hand with another for me personally. I know many people in metal music don´ t care about lyrics at all, but I do. It´ s all about the song and its story. If you go back to the roots and take a look at Blues music – where it all comes from – that´ s what it was all about. The story you wanted to tell with the song. Your story. Might be the same scales and schemes, but YOUR interpretation and version of it. Another day in hell or Shed my skin might be my favourite stories for this album. I had a really critical time with myself and my expectations towards myself when we wrote this album. And the same time, I experienced things I didn´t know before and made life worth living. It was kind of up and down, back and forth within seconds. All day, twenty four seven. Chaos. All in your head, which kind of makes you feel alone, though you aren´t. I felt like the only way for me to make the next step, is to face the chaos and fight through it.

7. How was the experience of recording and writing “Trapped in Chaos,” compared to working on your first three album releases?

LB: The difference is that it´s different. Different from what we´ve done before – but at the same time it feels like it´ s more us than it has ever been before. I remember Nico playing our very first demo songs to me, which I didn´t wanna listen before in a long time. When I heard us play – as kids – naive, not knowing, but playing from the heart, me singing instead of yelling – that´ s when I knew what we have to aim for with Trapped in Chaos. Finding ourselves and finding an approach to forget anything you think you learned as an adult, put yourself in a creative box with less possibilities, less technology and more heart. Less time, more strict deadlines and anything that would make us go crazy in order to make a good record.

8. Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for MetalAsylum.net. To close out the interview, tell your potential new fans why they should be getting into Dust Bolt.

LB: Because sooner or later, if you don´ t get into Dust Bolt, the Dust Bolt will get into you!

Official website: Official page: http://dustbolt.net/