Screaming Trees - Dust (1996)

(originally posted on Facebook)


First impression having never heard Screaming Trees: Dust sounds a lot like the music Robert Plant was making in the 90s, power rock with an eclectic middle-eastern twang. There is a rich layering of different instruments, including sitar, djembe, and mellotron. Deeper into the album the music shows a much clearer grunge influence with hints of psychedelia. Unfortunately the music also loses its complexity. It's not bad, but it's certainly not as good as the first couple of tracks. Well, I liked "Traveler" and I'm curious if Screaming Trees had "The Rain Song" in mind when they recorded it.

Way back in my review of U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind I complained about how they really fucked up the mellotron sound. Screaming Trees was doing really good with it until the last few songs on Dust. The idea, I would think, would be to try and blend the notes carefully together so it sounds more like real strings or flutes playing and not a keyboard. On the other hand I'm happy a 90s-era grunge band is trying different sounds. 3 stars.