Review: DNME “Last of a Dying Breed” CD

I think this might be the debut full-length from this Miami metallic hardcore band (featuring members of Vietnom), and like their demo they kick out plenty of burly, chugging power chords with gruff vocal shouts and no bullshit. However, this time around their songwriting is a little heavier, while the vocals have expanded just a touch to hit on a little bit of a raspy edge with a couple of hints at singing, as well as a few tradeoffs and guest spots to change things up from time to time. "Ides of March" has a little more of a traditional hardcore vibe to its structure and pacing while the vocals touch on some rugged Rick ta Life sounding enunciations, and a couple of the other songs bring in similar sounding old school chords amidst all the midpaced moshiness. The title track features a guest verse from the one and only John Joseph of the Cro-Mags, while Timescape Zero's Adel 156 pops up in the awesome "No Control", which is faster and has a thrashy undercurrent happening that I'd love to hear more of from these guys, as it makes for a more pissed off and energetic delivery that really leaves a mark - and how about that breakdown with the solo and all that shit!? Nice. Some of that added chunkiness to the riffing sticks around in "All I See" as well, making for a pretty damn strong back-to-back attack late in the disc. And then "Psycho Violent Destruct Beatdown" brings in some hip-hop influences with a guest vocal spot from G.I. Flow that's actually pretty damn effective. They also do a cover of Gut Instinct's "Off My Back", which is fairly indicative of the general style of hardcore that they're coming from. There's one song on the tracklist ("Ya No Sos Igual") that doesn't appear on the CD itself, but there's some extra material at the end of the disc, one track of which has vocals in Spanish and sounds like grindcore or something, so I guess that's it? The recording's not bad. A little more polishing up wouldn't hurt, but considering this isn't a high budget release they've done pretty damn good for themselves. The mix is balanced and you can hear the bass just peeking out behind the guitars, the drums are nice and forceful without overpowering the mix or sounding clinical, the guitars and vocals are both dense and tend to drive the material, and so on. A little more crunch to the guitars would probably amp things up a little, but in general everything's on the right track anyway so it works out without much of a hitch. The layout keeps it minimal and to the point, and I'm not that taken by it, but there's something about the cover art that makes me think of 80's thrash like Whiplash or something, and that's kind of cool, ha. The lyrics deal with a lot of betrayal and revenge and that kind of stuff, so you know the deal: "Chaos, hate, All I see is chaos, hate, negativity is all that I see, But I won't let it get the best of me, All you bastards are gonna pay, Spit in your face, You're a fucking disgrace." Despite the hardass attitude they seem to have a sense of humor though, as the sticker on the front cover states that the disc is for fans of Sheer Terror, Killing Time, and... Krokus!? At times the songs can be a little long for what they have to offer (the brevity of the Gut Instinct cover is part of what makes it stick so well, for example), and there are still some rough spots that need to be worked out, but these guys are definitely solid at what they do, and if they keep at it they ought to start getting a little more attention, because with the right shot I bet they could really drop a killer album. Not bad.