Labels: Black Lake – Fuck Life
Review by: Alex Hannan
Three heavy hitting songs here from Aberdeen’s DIRTDRINKER. Opener “Plaguescape” is a lesson in how to turn a four-count into a lurching, lumbering monster using offbeats and varied emphasis. I’m reminded of a sweet spot between JESUS LIZARD (the balance between symmetry/asymmetry, always in the service of the song rather than for its own sake) and the mathy/metallic end of post-hardcore (for the general sound and some of the riffs and guitar-work). I haven’t listened to much of that latter kind of sound since the heyday of BOTCH and researching some of the bands DIRTDRINKER have been compared to in this style I was reminded of what bored me back in the day – fetishistic graphic design, sassy song titles, ooh-look-at-the-fireworks music, pretty much content-free as a package. This 7″ avoids these pitfalls, though. GUYANA PUNCH LINE come to mind, not so much for musical reasons (although the blown out sound of the guitar gives a similar chunks-of-noise effect at times) as because they also took a genre I’m generally dubious about and nailed it.
No lyrics included, but a sample from the film “Punishment Park” woven into the outro of final song “Husk” gives a clue to what they might be singing about: “You want me to tell you what’s immoral? War is immoral! Poverty is immoral! Racism is immoral! Police brutality is immoral! Oppression is immoral! Genocide is immoral! Imperialism is immoral! This country represents all those things!”
The guitarwork covers a lot of ground without being too virtuosic about it, spidering around the fretboard, encompassing crunchy bass end and piercing treble often within the same riff. There’s no bassist here, but the guitar style and recording nevertheless succeed in giving a full, satisfying sound to the songs – impressive considering that the locking on of a good rhythm section is such an important part of the sound of many bands working with this kind of material. Perhaps it’s this need to anchor the songs as well as provide melodic and textural interest that keeps things so focused and concise here.
This has been available to download for a fair while, it seems, and there are new recordings up on their bandcamp, two more polished tracks and a rougher session recording. This 7″ is a great start, look forward to checking out more.