September 10, 2009

"punishing heavy riffage" (aka, more DIAL press content & band update!)


"Tali Williams scorched-earth vocals - grips you by the collar and shakes... a math-rock dirge with punishing heavy riffage."

Yet another posi DIAL review (read the whole thing here). This New Zealand outfit's near-unanimous praise amongst audio-heathens only fuels the excitement about what they're cooking up next. Quote the band themselves:

"In terms of playing - we were always a band that cared more about getting material together we were happy with than maintaining a live presence. This coupled with no solid practice space, wanting to learn how to record our own material and refreshing and re-formatting to a non-rock format that doesn't require a drummer (and all the upskilling that requires while being very busy people) has meant that it has taken a while, yes, but we are all stronger musicians because of it and the depth of the music has increased as a result. We are hoping for a return towards the end of the year and another release shortly after."

There you have it, DIAL is definitely working on more material, and we can't wait to hear what they've got in store! In the meantime, please consider picking up their debut EP in our Online Store. Its only 5 bucks and has been getting glowing reviews galore (click here for proof). Still haven't heard them? Two tracks from the EP are streamable here. Thanks.

UPDATE 09/11/09:
Just found another killer review, this time a somewhat profane one from our old brethren of Crucial Blast...

"Not to be confused with the avant-rock band Dial that arose from the ashes of Jacqui Ham's influential no-wave group UT, this Dial is from New Zealand and carries a way bigger stick, weilding their grinding, midpaced metallic noise rock like a studded club smashing through skulls and pulping brains and leaving me altogether kinda winded after this disc's nineteen minutes are up. Damn! These guys first released this five song EP as a demo a while back, but it's now reissued on disc for the rest of the world thanks to those fine folks at Robotic Empire. Dig Am Rep? Drool over the neo-pigfuck/noise rock sound of bands like Hex Machine and Black Elk and the like as hard as I do? Well then, yer going to fucking LOVE THIS. Each one of these jams takes some old school hardcore riffage and pares it down to a ultra-distorted, hypnotic block of super-distorted punishment and proceeds to bulldoze yer face with it for a good three-to-five minutes. The drumming is so goddamn heavy it shakes the speakers, a massive, bludgeoning industrial Swans-style grind, the drummer hammering the skins in controlled slow motion precision, while vocalist Natalia Williams goes completely nuts, her high pitched snarl sounding like she's ready to slit your fucking throat and leave you to drain out in the gutter, you motherfucker, while angular crush and darkly poetic lyrics rain down and the onward machine pound of Dial's music just hammers you deeper into the filth. One of the most ferocious debuts I've heard, like some hyperheavy fusion of Rusted Shut and Unsane and Filth-era Swans, which means ultra recommended."

Cool!

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