Duel’s 2017 album ‘Witchbanger’ served up eight slabs of fuzzy stoner rock that captured a genuinely great sound. Most of the guitar work came with a retro warmth as if everything was being slightly distorted by Orange amps, and when the band hit a genuine groove, the rhythm section sounded unshakable. The title cut played out like in the manner of a top notch stoner act attacking something by Monster Magnet with more of a swagger; ‘Cat’s Eye’ approached a world of melodic fuzz and a jagged groove with a genuine ease, and the slow and moody ‘The Sake Queen’ mixed the NWOBHM tones of Diamond Head with a more thoughtful and bluesy approach, but still sat naturally alongside the record’s slightly heavier tracks. Of course, the indelible influence from the likes of Sabbath and Mountain were there, but it was a pleasure to hear a stoner/doom band who were unafraid of mixing things up a little, and who also had the confidence to share shorter arrangements rather than letting a more typical epic doom approach pummel the audience into submission.

Eight years on and with a couple more albums under their belt, sadly, the Duel of 2024 aren’t quite as impressive. ‘Breakfast With Death’ has some strong musical moments – as with the opening number ‘Ancient Moonlight’ which kicks off with an array of massive power chords and then offers a speed driven rhythm that sounds like Metallica channelling Budgie, and the later ‘Burn The Earth’ which underscores pure Sabbath-isms with hard edged double bass drums and some killer twin lead guitars – but something’s amiss. The production values on this album aren’t particularly sympathetic to the overall Duel sound; they make everything louder than it needs to be – including the vocal – and that really doesn’t give the material the best send off. The harsh production is at its most obvious during ‘Burn The Earth’, since it pushes the vocal and guitar forward in the mix – a bit too far – and without the warmth that was present on ‘Witchbanger’ it makes it clear that Tom Frank’s voice isn’t always that great. In fact, there are times when he sounds like Electric Six man Dick Valentine pretending to be a heavy metal frontman (something that becomes all too obvious on the slightly silly sounding ‘Greet The Dead’), and that’s obviously far from ideal.

The rawer sound and iffy vocal makes the laughably awful ‘Satan’s Invention’ sound even worse than need be, with the stoner-ish riffs offset by a strange, overly trebly sound on the drums which makes the recording sound a bit cheap. There’s a great twin lead solo here, but that isn’t enough to rescue a genuinely bad tune, and the same goes for ‘Tigers of Destruction’ which offers some absolutely blistering twin leads, but rarely rises beyond second rate Metallica parody, leading to something that’s fairly forgettable in the long term. With the amount of musical weight Duel manage to summon on this track, it’s a shame they couldn’t apply their heavy talents to a half-decent song. This is much better than ‘Satan’s Invention’, but compared to early Duel material, it sounds too much like musicians smirking at old school metal…and hoping others will get on board.

That said, even the rawer sound doesn’t completely kill a decent groove from a more on form Duel, and the descending riff that kicks off ‘Chaos Reigns’ is superb. The chugging riffs that follow that mix the doom of ‘Make Them Die Slowly’ era White Zombie with a few more Metallica-isms in the vocal, setting a great mood in place, and then, everything thunders forth to explore a tight thrash metal backdrop, without changing the vocal meter to suit – and it works. Throw in a hefty twin lead guitar break, a nod to Sabbath, and a different descending riff re-introducing the original one and you have an old school metal classic, alive and well for a 2024 audience. Almost as good, ‘Fallacy’ supplies some absolutely massive riffs throughout. From its opening doomy chords, it advertises a genuine heaviness, but its when working through chugging melodies that are heavily borrowed from Metallica’s ‘Ride The Lightning’ LP that the band really springs to life. With the dirty, speed driven backdrop, even Tom’s vocal sounds better. Granted there are times when he appears to be channelling James Hetfield with more of a growl, but given the riff in hand, that’s more than understandable. Even when this track changes tack to present a slow, moody solo and heavily treated vocal, with Duel valuing atmosphere over bombast, their old school vibes sound so much better than on the likes of ‘Satan’s Invention’ and even ‘Ancient Moonlight’. The aforementioned ‘Greet The Dead’ is hampered by another semi silly vocal and some atrocious lyrics, but musically, manages to supply another album highlight thanks to a massively distorted, Sabbath infused doom riff channelled through something heavier, possibly inspired by the Conan school of sludginess. In terms of riffs, there’s plenty here to entertain the genre fan, and when Dual manage to drop cleaner tones and a semi-bluesy solo into the mix, there’s a feeling that the musicians are absolutely trying their best to bring their own twist to a great, heavy backdrop. If you’re into stoner metal purely for the riffs, then this will certainly appeal.

‘Breakfast With Death’ is a frustrating listen. There are times when Duel’s previous greatness bleeds through the loudness and sheer bombast, and there are some good moments where they sound like a classic 80s metal band channelling the faster elements of 70s Sabbath, resulting in something that should have a huge amount of retro, metallic power. Unfortunately, the song writing isn’t really there to back it up, and there are also times when a slightly overblown vocal and (possibly unintentionally) comical lyrics makes this record sound like a bizarre novelty. Duel show off material that has a fair amount of chutzpah and a whole world of heaviness here, but as the past has already proved, they’re capable of much better things. Those with a less discerning ear will discover a record that’s riff heavy and be happy enough with that, but in a world full of genuinely brilliant stoner and doom releases, unfortunately, ‘Breakfast’ isn’t strong enough to sustain any real long term enjoyment.

July 2024