Review Summary: Feel the bark and bite that surrounds me
Screamo has quickly become one of the largest subgenres over the past 10 years but especially in these past 2 years. Some bands are touring worldwide, playing sweaty basements, proper concert halls and even major music festivals where tens of thousands of people can be at any given time. Needless to say, the sheer amount of exposure that the screamo name has garnered itself in such a short amount of time is remarkable.
Dogseesgod is a band I've been watching for almost 2 years now with a couple lineup changes since their inception, they have finally brought us a debut EP
go dog!. Produced by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Jeromes Dream, Frail Body) this EP stands at 5 songs spanning across 20 minutes, delivering a rapid-fire, yet impactful taste of what this band has to offer. 'radar' opens with a nostalgic-like guitar passage that quickly turns into an array of bright guitar riffs topped by Bri Jack's screams which sounds truly cathartic. The song is almost reminiscent of a more screamo influenced Touché Amoré offshoot. 'luz azul' and 'no x in nixon' kick the aggression up quite a bit with dizzying drum patterns and discordant mosh riffs that make you wanna jump from a second story window.
The namesake of the band comes from the play of the same name, which is an "unauthorized continuation" of the Peanuts franchise. The story follows Charlie Brown grieving Snoopy's death, and what later comes with that (give the script a read, it's some truly wild ***). Most of the lyrics center around the aforementioned death of Snoopy and questioning whether us as humans are the ones who are deserving of death, by both questioning God and others. Take track 4,
dogseesgod for example. "They say all dogs go to heaven, but what about the man he defended?" This line makes me wonder if innocent loyalty, like a dogs loyalty is enough to make someone worthy of heaven, dog or not. There's also a chromatic riff near the middle of the song that is super satisfying. It might be my favorite song on this whole release.
The EP closes with an huge 8 minute track which takes what everything that every track prior did but makes it feel like an exhilarating journey. The main verses have noodling guitars and some really hard hitting drums that create such an intense sound that eventually develops into a wall of noise before breaking into a truly cutthroat crescendo. We get a couple of 'riffdowns' to close the track out which feel very akin to early Every Time I Die and other 00s metalcore, but with a very emo backdrop.
Overall, this is an excellent debut with my only complaint being that at only 5 songs and 20 minutes long, it's a little too short and leaves me wanting to hear more from this band. The band has created this really unique atmosphere of twinkly, bright emo riffs that are later challenged by some really heavy breakdowns and mosh parts, and no part of either feels campy, forced or contrived. It's nothing but pure turmoil happening right in front of you.
