The Dirty Nil – Higher Power

Good things come to those that wait.  This couldn’t be truer in the case of Hamilton, Ontario’s The Dirty Nil.  The band has been releasing splits and EPs for a good while now, but the road to their first full-length has been a lengthy one.  Rather than rush in and risk botching that once-per-career right of passage, the trio has comfortably shopped around from minor release to release, finally meeting up with the good folks on the reputable Dine Alone Records.  The band’s rough and distorted brand of grunge-coated punk and alternative fit well alongside the label’s diverse ragtag roster.  

The fruits of their labour, the eleven song full length Higher Power, offers up a familiar yet surprisingly modern take on the increasingly aged grunge scene.  Opener “No Weaknesses” squeals open to the hearty crunch of full-bodied riffs, to which vocalist Luke Bentham responds with a sloppy, throaty wail reminiscent of that which defined 90’s alternative.  The defining difference with The Dirty Nil rests with the intermittently accelerating tempo and sudden lurching stops of Luke Bentham’s raw bursts.  Rather than sit and stew in the muddy sludge of guitar, the verse erupts rampantly from a thundering bassy tempo.  The final thirty seconds screech obnoxiously as if the band makes a point to flex their obvious garage-punk muscles.

For the most part, Higher Power is a fairly casual listen with a rough edge.  “Wrestle Yu To Husker Du” serves as an appropriate homage to it’s namesake, highlighting the overlapping melodic hardcore genre characteristics.  Tracks like “Lowlives” and “Fugue State” hold nothing back to the point of taking after unapologetic thrash bands like Outbreak with the thicker edge of Every Time I Die.  These grimy, guttural moments may not be as prominent as the slower burning, Nirvana-inspired norms like “Know Your Rodent,” but they more than do their job of defining The Dirty Nil as a band of today.

The band has likely released the full length debut they had been waiting to deliver.  For a rough and tumble band combining elements of indie, grunge and thrash, The Dirty Nil bring it altogether with commendable coherence.  Listeners with a hesitancy towards anything neo-grunge may want to sit this one out, but the rest of us stand to to gain substantial enjoyment from these mumbling, throaty Canadians.   With plenty of room for further growth and genre hybridization, the horizon appears vast for The Dirty Nil.