BLACK ROCK MUSIC SERIES: Wrust, Botswana

Regular readers of Booker Rising know that I am a hard rock fan. Some of my rock choices are so underground that even the so-called indie rockers (who tend to not rock hard enough for my taste) who prefer to patron music festivals like Lollapalooza, Pitchfork Music Festival or Coachella haven't discovered them yet.
Check out Wrust (pronounced Rust), an extreme metal - also known as black metal or death metal - band out of Gaborone, Botswana. Yes, you read right, Tyrone and Imani, not Norway or Southern California but Botswana. A black metal band in more ways than one, so one of the few true black metal outfits out there. When I in passing came across a piece about the growing African heavy metal scene, of course I had to check it out online. They are apparently so under the radar that the Black Rock Coalition has not roped them in yet (there are foreign acts in the BRC).

According to an interview that they did with SoundClick, the band's name "still has its roots from the word Rust. Rust is associated with Metal, which is what we play. Its also associated with 'Old', we play death metal (old genre) but with a new sound." Wrust has played shows throughout Botswana, a country of 1.6 million people and a middle-income country by global standards. Wrust has also performed in South Africa and Namibia (whose rock music scenes are overwhelmingly white, while Botswana's scene is reportedly overwhelmingly black). They have also opened for Sepultura when the Brazilian extreme metal band had its South African tour in 2003. Wrust is on the Witchdoctor Records label, which is a heavy metal label based in South Africa. Their most recent CD (released last year) is called "Soulless Machine" although they apparently will be dropping another one later on this year.

I like "Soulless Machine" and "Run", both of which are showcased on Wrust's MySpace page. I don't like "Kill Or Be Killed" though. Here is a short clip of headbangers in action at a Wrust concert in the small town of Maun, Botswana:



My kind of rockers, which is why I've bought three of their songs to download to my iPod. Hopefully these guys will get more publicity, and be touring more beyond southern Africa. Booker Rising specializes in showcasing black ideological diversity, so of course I'm gonna give you some black musical diversity as well.