Obscene, Extreme And Everything In Between With JASON FULLER From BLOOD DUSTER

When Melbourne noise machine and champion for the underdog Blood Duster called time in early December 2017, the Australian music scene lost one of the greats. Not just in terms of music, but, more importantly, in terms of old school ethos. The punk mentality of fuck you and whatever you rode in on that had by then thankfully settled into the heavier side of music.
The band were an enigma. They cursed, they bled, they had an opinion, and they had an agenda. Which was purely based on fun and enjoyment of their music. The fact that every year since has seen some form of (false) whisper about an unlikely reunion has only helped strengthen the myth surrounding the music. Hell, HEAVY would not have even heard of the band were it not for their infamous CUNT shirts, which is another thing about the band that has remained intriguing.
But this year was different. 2025 became the year when Blood Duster said yes to returning to Australian stages and said fuck it to any previous trepidation. And the lucky festival to secure that much sought-after signature?
Blacken Open Air.
As bass player Jason Fuller tells us during our chat, Blacken have come knocking every year since 2017, urging - sometimes pleading - with the band to make a resurgence at the hallowed grounds of the outback metal festival, but each request fell on deaf ears. Until now.
Blood Duster will play their first gig on Australian soil in almost a decade as one of the headliners of Blacken Open Air 2025 (September 19 - 22), and HEAVY jumped at the chance to speak with the man behind the myth and behind the legend, Jason Fuller. We start by asking why now is the right time for a return outing.
"When we finished the band, we really kind of…" Fuller measured… "We felt like once you're releasing records; once you're destroying records before they can even be released, you've kind of reached peak annoyability for everyone (laughs). We did everything we had to do, and we were starting to do shows just for money, and it felt totally dishonest considering what Blood Duster is. It's supposed to be a party. We were at this point where we reached the peak of what we were gonna do and were getting annoyed with having to do it. So we just killed it. It's been eight years or whatever, and we just want to hang out with each other and have a party. All the heavy lifting is done. We don't have to fucking write anything. We don't have to go into a fucking release cycle. We don't have to worry about any of those things. We can just turn up, play some songs and have a ball. So that's where our heads at with all that."
In the full interview, Jason talked more about why Blood Duster chose Blacken as their first gig back on home soil, the temptations and offers over the years, what to expect from Blood Duster live, what other bands he is looking forward to catching up with and the value of friendship within the metal community.
We spoke about the diversity in Blacken's roster, the early days of Blood Duster and the musical climate that created them, their blending of genres before it was cool to do so and the future of the band after this show. And, of course, we talked about THAT shirt, with Jason recalling some funny moments because of that piece of merchandise and the album it spawned from.


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