Split Dogs
Nice N’ Rough
Venn Records
Sometimes you only have to hear a few notes of an album to deduce that a band are carrying the revolutionary spirit, and that’s certainly the case with Split Dogs’ third long player. Featuring a (lucky) thirteen tracks Nice N’ Rough channels the energy of every band who’ve set speakers alight; from the fuzzed-up riffs of AC/DC to the “hate, kill, destroy” ethos of The Stooges via Chuck Berry’s outrageous duckwalk, Split Dogs’ influences are so deep and wide their root source can’t be traced. That makes each of these songs strangely familiar but also refreshingly original. Sure, you might have heard rowdy openers before, but never delivered with the chutzpah that ‘Be Somebody’ displays. From here on in the band take the listener on a white knuckle ride through razor sharp riffs, detonating drums and visceral vocals. There’s a serious lack of fluff on songs such as ‘Suffer’, Split Dogs chopping off any dead wood until all that’s left is pure song; any solos are short and succinct and two notes aren’t employed when one will suffice. It’s a kind of windswept experience, its no nonsense approach meaning it’s over far too quickly, but don’t worry; you’ll soon be hitting “play” again.
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Review by Peter Dennis.