Doom RidersI love it when band's can properly incorporate some dirty rock into their hardcore and Boston's Doomriders do it flawlessly. Featuring Nate Newton (Converge, Old Man Gloom), Jebb Riley (There Were Wires, Disappear), Chris Pupecki (Cast Iron Hike), and Chris Bevalaqua (Hallraker), these guys are as tight as the zipper on the front of your pants. Where many bands fail attempting to play rock infused hardcore/punk, these guys excel. Every song is unique in its own right yet still as a whole, sound like one band rather than jumping from one genre to the other in each song like so many bands do, leaving you feel like you just listened to a compilation rather than an actual full length album. And another great thing about this album is it's an actual full length, 13 tracks clocking out just under 46 minutes, and their isn't any wasted time or filler. The way they organized their songs is another strong point. For the most part the album gallops along until something pops up, either the instrument track ("Voice of Fire") half way through the album which is a nice change of pace, usually left for the end of the album or "Midnight Eye," which starts off real slow and the vocals take on a different sound, sounding very comparable to Danzing. Lyrically, I'm loving these guys. There's everything from songs about Skateboarding, saying fuck everything, stories about mystical beasts and the like, wandering through wastelands,etc,. I'm sure a good portion of the lyrics are used in an abstract fashion but I'm way to short on time to try to break down and decipher the lines. Handling the production duties is the man, the myth and legend, Kurt Ballou out of his God City Studios. As you would expect, if you've ever listened to any of the records he's produced, it sounds fantastic. The guitars are thick and heavy, the drums have good snap and pop, the bass sounds fucking stellar, you can actually decipher the bass lines behind the guitar work. I'm really liking how the vocals were dialed in, at times it's thin but it makes for a good contrast with the thick, full sound of the instruments. The layout is sinister as shit with great use of color, black and lime green dominate the bulk of the layout with purple added on the front cover. The booklet folds out and displays an insanely sick looking collage with various little lines and phrases. The front cover, which was a painting done by Jebb Riley (talk about a talented fucking dude), really adds to aura of the record. The only problem I have with the layout is the lyrics, which are all squeezed on to one page, I started to get a migraine after trying to read all of the lyrics. And the blind kids will most definitely need their glasses/magnifying glass to read the tiny little lime green specks.
Rating: 4.4/5
Songs worthy of replay: Black Thunder, Ride or Die
Thesis: Deathwish has done it again. Great song writing, great lyrics, great production, great layout. What are you still waiting for? Go out get this.