The Dirty NIL - F**K Art: Review
Canadian Alternative Punk Rock Band The Dirty NIL has opened the new year with their third album, F**k Art a collection of new hard rock riffs and punk influenced lyricism that don’t hit the nail as hard as their previous album Master Volume. Its derelict nature is more truncated due to this feeling of angst being more direct with a youth, some are less nostalgic for. That is why there is a unique cadence to Master Volume that F**k Art feels lost replicating. It's audacious sounds and lush lyricism weave a solid hard rock album. But on their newest release comes across as an underwhelming feat of lackluster lyrics and vocal deliveries that underwhelm tracks as a whole, even when the instrumentation comes with bravado.
Its strong opening and closing is as great as they can be when you only count 2-3 songs within each of those two sectors. “Doom Boy,” and “Blunt Force Concussion,” have subtle melancholic strings that build momentum on the fluctuating percussion patterns. The transitions are of beauty and its a shame it doesn't translate all the way through. There is an array of yawning vocals that don’t improve and the unique instrumentations doesn't levy balance in repeat value. It starts with that sense of weak input as “Elvis ‘77” starts to end with repetitiveness verbiage asking us why we didn't call our mother more. A dour end to a track that is ⅔ strong with its hard rock focus and head moshing mood.
The melancholic “Done With Drugs,” is one of the defining tracks that is just too bland with its weak theme building and simple ballad-like structure, it dwindles in the mind. So as the album continues the noise of lead singer Luke Bentham remains a muddle of their peak heard on Master Volume. It doesn’t help that the track subverts the ideology that drugs make you feel superhuman. It isn’t always the drugs but the consistency of “getting away with it,” that weaves the ego into believing it. It doesn't feel fully fleshed out and it's just another angsty track that isn't profound.
Most of the middle contains a rampant array of distressed love songs that have great hard rock guitar riffs and powerful snares that make them near listenable even when Bentham’s vocal delivery has typical patterns that don’t evoke enough interest to keep it going. Though, “Damage Control,” is a rarity due to its nuances in its punk influence, especially of the mid 2000s. Its unique way of letting it progress to a momentous hard rock instrumentation of closer, before the final reprisal of the chorus with vigorous and violent drums. It’s bliss to the ears.
The album closes on a strong note with fresh stories and instrumentations, like the ode written to the man who stole Bentham’s bike as a youth. Its punk rock nature is a breath of fresh air to start 2021, however, it can’t be said of the whole product we received from start to finish. It does cap off on an excellent note with “One More And The Bill,” that embodies the feeling of angst within the anxieties of life. Like Bentham lyrics about disillusionment in our thoughts of “one more” with our physical clutch to our emotions, and in this case it’s alcohol.
F**k Art is a unique arrangement of instrumentations but the band, especially Luke Bentham, seem to lose sense of direction in their themes and approach. It is inconsistent with much to go back to, even though the band as a whole has a huge ceiling it can reach. They got close on the Master Volume, and instrumentally they continue to show that promise.