For a long time there, even after my quest to discover as many new heavy metal acts as possible from France, Dum Dum Bullets were one of those bands that I would hesitate to invest any serious time, effort or money into. I had heard the comments (another French Motorhead) and read about them (second generation act that contributed very little to the scene, under produced album, yada yada yada) and sadly wrote them off. It took me far too long to find out the truth about this band (yes, the Motorhead part is true to a point-more on that later) and what they, briefly, offered the scene. First though a bit of background on Dum Dum Bullet. The band was formed in Le Mans, Pays de la Loire in 1979. They emerged out of the ashes of another act known as Bloody Mary who had already issued a 45 themselves featuring "No One Is Real" and the wonderfully named "Killer Boogie". For the band, who had initially formed with the intention of playing a punk-hard rock combination, 1983 saw the release of a demo (Demo 1983) and a single "Emmène Moi En Enfer". Despite playing out live and building up a sizable following the band's hopes of a record contract did not materialize at first. There was line-up changes and a slight change in musical style (out with the punk image and in with more hard rock to go along with the "Motorhead Worship") before appearing on the Compilation album "1984 Sully S/Loire ROCK" with the track "Get Down". In 1985 the band issued yet another demo and released a killer video for their song "Hey Mum Who's the Junk?". Finally with ex-Calliper Square vocalist François Sorin joining John Tyzz (guitars), Jimmy Heudes (bass as well as lead vocals from 1979-1985), Ariski Lucas (drums) it seemed as if the band had hit upon the idea line-up. Sure enough they had as 1986 saw the long anticipated release of the band's self-titled debut album on the record label Sydney. Now, this is where I come into contact with the band as this 1986 arrived in my mail the one day as part of a trade. It might be a bootleg or a real release, but my copy has been coupled with the Black Sun (also a French act) album "Imperial Journey". As everyone hinted at or really just talked loudly about there is most certainly a love for Motorhead to be found on this lone long player from Dum Dum Bullet. However, one can't help but take notice of how much they also must have adored AC/DC. The band's sound is really a mixture of Motorhead and AC/DC with some of the appeal of early Saxon (or maybe just Saxon's drunken step-brother?) throw in for good measure. It isn't always pretty and the production is paper-thin at times, but for no-frills/denim clad hard rock/heavy metal it is a fun listen. The band wouldn't have won many points for originality music or lyric wise and at times the songs do tend to sound an awful lot alike. Like I said though for straight-ahead rock/metal you could have done a whole lot worse. Sure enough the band managed this one album and then seemed to have just faded into the background. Reported they are once again active, but just how active they remains to be seen.
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