I have no clue what DNME stands for, and I had never heard of this band until a buddy of mine sent this to me to review for a friend of his, but I was hooked by the fact that the first line on the entire demo is "Motherfuck this shit!" Good stuff. This is burly metallic hardcore with a really bitter and pissed off attitude not unlike Blood for Blood or something of that nature, but this doesn't sound like Blood for Blood at all aside from some of the more straightforward, heavy chord progressions. But every song sort of has its own thing going on. There's an unexpected melodic solo in "Hate for Life", "Self Destruction" is much faster and has higher-pitched lead vocals during the first half of the song, so the core of the track almost has a crossover sort of Municipal Waste thing going on, and then "Pull Out Kid" has more of a street punk-ish undercurrent and brings in some slight singing, etc. The recording is really good for a demo. It could be thicker or louder/more powerful in a way, but the mix is pretty even and none of the tones particularly bother me. I think the vocals sound excellent, it's just the guitars and bass that need more emphasis over the crispness of the percussion. The last three tracks are unlisted and were recorded live, so of course they sound a lot rawer and to me serve little purpose compared to how good the studio tracks are, but whatever. The CD-R, which is a clear orange color, comes in a plain white sleeve. The face of the CD-R has the song titles and band contact, as well as some tattoo styled artwork that hits all of the typical basics (knives, brass knuckles, a star, alcohol, flames, aces, and all that). It looks alright, but I would've preferred to see some sort of actual package that gave the artwork more room to breathe. This is a good demo, I like the five studio tracks a lot and wouldn't be surprised if these guys end up signed. I'd like to hear more at some point.
[self-released]
Running time - 22:10, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: The Arrival, Self Destruction]
DNME - [email protected]
