THE DIRTY NIL - EP REVIEW

The Dirty Nil - Smite EP 
The Dirty Nil - Smite EP

I've been looking forward to this one as Canadian trio The Dirty Nil combine two of my favourite things in music; brevity and melody. The longest song of this collection of five is two minutes and forty-six seconds long but every one of the songs has a hook and not an ounce of fat. Kicking off with the incendiary early single 'Nicotine', the Dirty Nil show off their Ramones-esque drums and 40-a-day gravel throated vocals with aplomb. 104 seconds later and we're on to the second song in the shape of 'Beat', a leather clad, in your face, punk'n'roll beast that sweats Jack Daniels and snorts crushed up drums for breakfast. Hidden in the middle of this EP is the absolute pearl of a song that is 'New Flesh', a lumbering, jerking and relentless Frankenstein's monster of a tune that will take hit after hit before even starting to consider giving up its mindless pursuit.

Recent single 'Wrestle Yu To Husker Du' still sounds fresh and perky in the same way the Pixies and early Nirvana do - fresh and perky through a stinking hangover that starts off with you waking up face down in an ashtray. Final track, 'Pale Blue', doesn't let up the pace of this EP as the vocals are forced out and the beats'n'riffs chug remorselessly onward like a super-fuelled Queens Of The Stone Age with more raw energy and attitude. It's always gratifying that, after one or two promising tracks, a band like the Dirty Nil go on to make an almighty racket over a prolonged period which proves your instincts right. Raw, powerful, focused, melodic and fierce - get some.


Live Dates:

20th February - Shea Stadium, Brooklyn
21st February - Anna Liffey's Pub, New Haven
22nd February - Tasty Burger, Cambridge
28th February - Jimmy Jazz, Guelph
2nd March - Grace Hall, Sudbury
6th March - Call The Office, London ON
14th March - Pressed, Ottawa
21st March - Silver Dollar, Toronto
28th March - Detour Music Hall, Saint Catharines

29th March - The Spice Factory, Hamilton ON 

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