This, the debut long-player from Massachusetts four-piece DIRT MALL consists of eight tracks, and is most likely described as being some kind of AC/DC/Punk hybrid, or so the official line goes..
Opener ‘Los Angeles’ is a garagey, grungey glam rocker that clings grimly to the predictable structure with all the weak vocals and musical ineptitude of punk.
This Ramones-style dirge comes to a sudden halt before a lounging, (railroad?) tracks-in reverse. ‘Levi-ad’ cartoon rocker kicks in with a pelvic shift. Again holding grimly on to the standard path, ‘Medicate(today)’ swaggers and sways, but without much conviction.
Though these lads bel-iee-e-e-ve in rock n’ roll, the crashing ode to stoner rock decadence is predictable and clichéd, with neither a traceable hint of irony, nor the sonic twist to back it up within hearing range. Taking self-indulgence to the bridge, the record wouldn’t be complete without the reverb-drowned nine minutes and two seconds epic ‘The Demons and the Damned’. The cringe-inducing title says it all, but without a sense of humour, this merely grates and irritates.
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The overall effect is powerful enough in terms of sound, but this merely intensifies the well-trodden nature of this particular path, and the band’s subsequent failure to make its mark upon it. Disappointing.
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