Dead Or American - Ends

by Lisa Holmes

At last a British hardcore band who actually sound like they could mix it up with the big boys stateside

"Seriously – there’s been far too much screaming not enough ‘emoting’ in the UK hardcore scene recently"

At last a British hardcore band who actually sound like they could mix it up with the big boys stateside. Seriously, there’s been far too much screaming and not enough ‘emoting’ in the UK hardcore scene recently; in a non-emo way obviously.

This being the debut album for DOA means it’s packed full of continuous energy with the only "slow bit" coming in the form of rocker ‘Thousand Hills’. But you don’t hear slow screamo done better elsewhere, so hats off to them for that. ‘Sleep Well Diego Garcia’ takes TV On The Radio and fuses it with the good bits of Faith No More, whilst ‘Liquidation’ is Dead Kennedys covering Sweet - this is a good thing.

The sheer variety of influences is sometimes mind-boggling. They mayb be a hardcore band, but it is clear that Dead Or American (try googling it – there’s a lot of dead Americans funnily enough) have the ability to transcend that label by a mile.

On their wesbite, they include a delightfully British tour diary, for that added insight into the evolution of what could be a very exciting band. Apparently they are already working on their second album in Boston with Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou producing, so it’s very much a case of beginnings rather than endings.

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