Review Summary: Heavy and Venomous.
Quite frankly, a lot of the stuff to come out of the 90s-aping metalcore/metallic hardcore scene bores me. Chunky, slow riffs that don’t go beyond the first three frets, monotonous vocals trying to sound as incomprehensible as possible for the sake of brutality, and uninspired breakdowns are common on a lot of records in this scene, even the ones heralded as the best. I’ve listened to records such as Knocked Loose’s A Different Shade Of Blue, and while thinking that there are some pretty great moments throughout and the execution is superb, it feels very one-note and lacking in anything truly bold. Fortunately, I stumbled upon this beast. Dragged Through The Dirt pretty much does what it says in the title, and for 11 tracks beats the listener into a pulp with a club made of blast-beats and savage riffs.
The main selling point of this album is the guitar work. From the opener, “Dragged Through The Dirt” there is an assault of gloomy, black-metal esque tremolo riffs that launch into a savage groove with bass and drums rumbling below it all. Many of the album’s standout tracks have this feeling of unease and dread to them that is amplified by a juxtaposition of heavy and frenetic riffs that weave their way through the song, and actually give the album a lot of dynamics. That’s a pretty rare to find in a lot of heavier metalcore releases, and it is what makes the heavy/breakdown parts on this album stand out so much more than they would in a wall-of-noise beatdown approach. The best example of this is “Those Eyes” In which a stomping intro goes into a bunch of melodic, desperate sounding guitar work building up to a breakdown sure to blow out your speakers if you play it at max volume. Besides being interesting, it is also a conscious choice by the band to have the guitar work reflect more emotions than just pit-inducing anger. The themes of these songs deal heavily in failed relationships, self-loathing, and existential despair, and on tracks such as “Lilac”, long tremolo runs coincide with a feeling of defeat and hopelessness.
Besides riffs, this album has a lot of other qualities that put it a class above its peers. The drum and bass mix is phenomenal. Neither instruments ever overtake others but are loud enough that you can clearly hear them behind the guitars and they are a large reason as to why every riff and groove hits like a truck. Technically, they provide their own flairs to a lot of the songs, a bassline leading into a breakdown or a cool fill here and there. The drumming in particular has a lot of range, going from in-the-pocket rhythms such as on “Please Don’t Leave Me” to blast-beats as in “No Flowers on Your Grave” which also contains a scathing vocal feature from ex-Cursed Earth vocalist Jasmine Luders that dominates the latter half of the track. On the subject of features, Matt Honeycutt of Kublai Khan TX appears on “Agony” in the bare-fisted style he is so well known for, and his band’s similarities with JFTD are clear, especially in the heavy grooves on this album’s best tracks. Vocally, shrieks and growls dominate the record, filled with enough venom and despair to make everything said on it feel a hundred percent authentic. In addition to some pained yells from the rhythm guitarist that often provide moments to breathe.
There are a couple of nitpick level flaws however, on an otherwise stellar release. This album’s flow isn’t the smoothest, and tracks like “It Will Always Be My Fault” sound generic and uninteresting next to the pummeling and ferocious final two tracks on the album. There are a few awkward moments, where pacing in a song suddenly slows down, or the random clean vocals in “Demon.” The way final track, “Bearing The Crown Of Lies” ends feels a bit indecisive, a melancholic chord progression slowly fading out. It feels like they could have done way better when looking at the album as a whole. Still, if you’re a fan of metalcore or death metal that’s looking for an album to just beat you to a pulp, you’ve come to the right place.
