A sonic wrecking ball of a debut release from this Canadian noise-core crew!
What’s with all these North American bands doing such a fine job of straddling the hardcore and noise-rock camps? We’ve only just reviewed the fearsome new Iron Lung album, and now here come Toronto quintet Dogwhistle with an absolute beast of a debut EP. Is there something in the water over there? Or maybe it’s the – shall we say – political uncertainty? Hard times do often produce hard music, after all.
Make no mistake, ‘Textile Waste’ is exactly that. An eerie, discordant opening instrumental gives way to some powerhouse drumming on ‘No More Tickets To The Funeral’. It’s the aural equivalent of a shower of boulders, there’s a wall of guitar noise, and their gravel-throated vocalist damn near pushes things into death metal territory at times. This is stuff for which the phrase ‘beautifully brutal’ was tailor-made.
You’d better be paying attention by the time following track ‘First Person Shooter’ kicks in, with the kind of awesome, churning low-end riff that’s pretty much guaranteed to whip any self-respecting pit into a war zone. Inspired by “21st century militarism, technological alienation, and the detached brutality of drone warfare”, it certainly has an apocalyptic vibe to it. ‘White Mask’ continues in a similar – if faster – vein; imagine a meeting of minds (and sounds) between Helmet and Converge, and you’ll have a rough idea of where these Canadians are headed.
The title track is probably the closest thing on here to a Big Shiny Hit Single. Okay, we exaggerate. It does have a touch of rock n’ roll swagger to it, though, and a great chiming guitar line over the chorus. The wonderfully crunchy finale of ‘brokenwindowsbloodyhands’ sees them throw everything they’ve got at the wall, and leaves us feeling somewhat breathless – but definitely in a good way.
Any downsides? Well…it’s only 11 minutes long, but then, it’s probably not wise for any band to sustain this level of intensity for much longer. For now, ‘Textile Waste’ marks Dogwhistle out as ones to watch, and we’ll certainly be keeping an eye on them.
- (instrumental)
- No More Tickets To The Funeral
- First Person Shooter
- White Mask
- Textile Waste
- brokenwindowsbloodyhands
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I spend my days teaching English to foreign students, and my evenings attending as many gigs as possible. Raised mainly on a diet of 90s third-wave punk, my tastes have grown to include just about anything from trad ska to thrash metal. The Ramones are my musical gods.
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