Review: Dog Assassin “s/t” 7”

Here's some fast hardcore/punk with a loose and almost sloppy edge to the music, but a lot more energy to the vocal tradeoffs with tons of shouting/yelling. I hate the guitar tone, though. It's got a weird sort of sheen going on, and I actually think part of it might be the guitar itself, since sometimes it sounds like it won't stay in tune. Everything else sounds pretty good, but the guitars need to be more fluid, they get lost in the shuffle quite a bit. I really like the energy of the speed and the song structures, though. Most of the playing is tight, it's just that fucked up guitar tone that gives things that looser vibe, with the occasional lead break actually getting pretty rough. "Assassinate Sexism" has a killer bass intro and sort of an old school hardcore thing going on, with a melodic punk rock lead, making for a great song; while "Army's Motto" then has a clean introduction and some subtle melodies that stand out. The 7" comes in a black fabric sleeve silkscreened with red ink and sewn together at the sides, hand-numbered out of a mere 325 copies. Inside is a xeroxed insert with a photo collage and lyrics, and the content is your usual socio-political fare such as war, sexism, animal rights, etc. There's one cheesy dumpster diving song, and I've always hated that sort of trendy stuff, but the other songs are a little longer than average lyrically, and I like some of the stuff. This isn't so bad, it just needs a little work to really nail it. If nothing else the packaging looks great, so this label definitely seems to be very good with quality D.I.Y. packaging.