Album Review: Death Lottery – LP I

After the release of 2017’s “EP I” and 2018’s “EP II” it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Death Lottery‘s debut album is called “LP I“, although they slipped up with their 2019 split EP with Hardship Anchors that disappointingly, and somewhat surprisingly, wasn’t called ‘Split I‘. There has been a constant evolution across Death Lottery‘s brief back catalogue, from the ragged raw garage rock roots of their earlier releases they have constantly embraced and assimilated other influences from across the punk spectrum, and their thirteen track debut ‘LP I‘ is no exception to this rule.

“LP I” opens with ‘Sociopath‘, a reworked version of ‘Craigslist Killer‘ from “EP I“, that kicks things with a blast of hardcore influenced garage punk, Death Lottery don’t relent, there’s always that ragged and raw fuzzed out garage punk attitude present, but they take it and blend it with all of the forms of punk rock that followed in the wake of the garage bands. Like any good recipe you can only guess at their ingredients, but from my initial exposure I would throw old school hardcore and punk rock, the Ramones 4/4 buzzsaw signature, the snotty attitude of the original garage bands and The Hives swagger out there, that’s not the whole package but it’s an impressive starting point

If I’m going to leave a criticism at ‘LP I‘ it’s that Death Lottery have drawn very deep from their back catalogue, a lot of the tracks, ten out of thirteen in total, have appeared on the band’s previous releases, although the versions that appear on their album have been re-recorded, refined and altered, so whilst a lot of the material is familiar you’re not just buying recycled goods. Death Lottery are part of the welcome resurgence in hi energy garage punk rock, there is no filler, no flourishes or overproduction, just raw rock ‘n roll served up fast with the thirteen tracks on “LP I” delivered in an all too short 25 minutes.

“LP I” can be streamed and purchased via Bandcamp here