[Album Review] Dog – Self Titled
How good is finding incredible bands in your own local underground scene? That is where you find musicians writing for the love of playing and a passion for art, you find the people that just write songs cause that’s what they are feeling, and you can’t find a band around with more feel in their riffs than Bendigo’s, Dog.
Meet Dog, stoner desert sludge groove metal rock, and probably some more adjectives, I don’t know exactly what it is labeled but goddamn, these 6 tracks on their first self-titled album took me on an audial journey that I didn’t even realise was coming. From start to finish, its heavy, rhythmic droning arrangements kept me hypnotized and then the next thing I knew, it was over, and of course I had to start it again, what else was a man to do? The riffs throughout each track repeat but I never found that I got bored or tired of hearing them, the changing of the drum patterns under each riff progression keep the listener engaged and interested to hear the next.
Dog is straight from the underground; its rough, its raw, its ambient, if you are after some sort of clean-cut rock/metal album, this probably won’t be for you but if you are into the likes of Clutch style riffs, Orange Goblin heavy sludge tones and plenty of reverb in your vocals, then look no further, this is what you need.
This album is stacked full of sludgy, fuzz driven tracks that take a life of their own. These songs sound completely natural, like they recorded a jam session that just happened out of the blue. Their engineer has done well to keep the ambience alive in recording these tracks, with so many little melodies sprinkled throughout that add to the feel still being caught in the mix, it’s kept the live organic sound but with a nicely cleaned edge to bring this album together.
If you are going to only give one song a listen off this short album, make it Like Embers. This track sums up’ Dog s sound nicely, it has all the elements of every other song, but brings the tempo up a bit in comparison. The vocal style of Like Embers sounds like he is singing in pain, he adds an extra bit of grit to his voice, they also add a nice little tremolo style guitar solo into the mix for good measure. My favourite part of Dog’s overall sound would be their bass, it has this filthy fuzz driven sound that holds everything together, not that I’m biased towards the bass, but this is a killer bass tone! Bassists take note!
I enjoy finding underground albums, they feel like they have a life of their own. They sound original, fresh, you can hear the heart of the musicians. That’s what you will find in Dog, these guys are just playing to what they feel, the riffs repeats, the melodies soar, and the drums will hold you there in the moment, It’s all in the feeling.
Take a chance on the underground, you never know what you may find once you start looking into it, while there could be a lot of hard listens in your local scene, you can come across something different and standout, like Dog.
