“The song starts off at a quick clip and spirals out from there with heavy metal guitar riffs, rapid-fire drum strikes, and scintillating cymbals crash.” -Rebel Noise
It’s release day for Seattle’s Jack and the Dull Boy, a prog-metal band unveiling their refreshingly retro debut album, ‘Failure In Three Parts.’
Sonically, the the album is a nod to the guitar (and synth) heroes of the 80s and early 90s but lyrically, we have biting commentaries on late night doom-scrolling, internet hoaxes, and misinformation.
Jack and The Dull Boy have gone back to the future and they’ve returned with a collection that easily transports listeners to a time when jean jackets fit just right and skateboards were gigantic.
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Jack and the Dull Boy exists at the intersection of hard rock, heavy metal, and progressive pop. With their debut release, Failure in Three Parts, the Seattle duo has lovingly crafted an album for an alternate universe in which classic metal guitar tones are mainstream, and fans of metal prefer clean vocals with sing-along choruses. Described by Jules Hodgson (KMFDM, Spitting Cobras, Detonator) as “the New Wave of Not British Heavy Metal/Hard Rock/Prog”, Jack and the Dull Boy aims to fulfill a need that may or may not actually exist.
Seventeen years ago, Devon Summers (songwriter, guitarist, and reluctant vocalist) somehow managed to trick virtuoso drummer Aaron Nicholes into joining forces for the now defunct punk/metal outfit Scorpiknox. Since then, they’ve remained close pals even after taking separate paths in both the Chicago and Seattle underground rock scenes. Aaron Nicholes has toured in support of KMFDM with the band Legion Within, earned an AVN nomination for best score of a feature film (starring Dita von Teese), and has performed live at both Bumbershoot and the Capitol Hill Block Party. By contrast, Devon Summers is proficient in both MS Word and Excel and has excellent communication skills as well as an uncommon attention to detail. When the duo recently found themselves back in the rehearsal space together, mostly as an excuse to drink beer, Jack and the Dull Boy was born.
Science tells us that 80s and 90s thrash metal guitars are in fact the best sounding of all the guitars throughout space and time. In addition, many studies have shown that most everything else about modern metal has become a bit stale. In response to this crisis of genre conformity, Failure in Three Parts abandons many stagnant metal production cliches while keeping the soul of butt-rock guitar riffage alive and well.
