Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
From right here in the Bluegrass State comes the crushing metalcore of DREADED DALE and its conceptually-themed ‘Wayward‘ EP.
The six-song effort dropped just this week, on June 19th, and all proceeds from its sales are going to help a worthwhile outreach, the Short Creek Dream Center. The music contained upon the EP is super abrasive post-hardcore / modern metal similar to such acts as Lamb Of God, War Of Ages, or Unearth.
From the shotgun blast intro that initiates the start of “Voices“, this is pummeling aggression rife with constantly shifting tempos and equally alternating vocal deliveries. Heavy riffs are hurled, and land, with the impact of a concrete cinder block as piston-like rhythms, ceaselessly pierce the atmosphere.
This approach of incessant brutality remains the avenue taken on other searing tracks too, ones like “Days Gone By” (one of my favorite cuts), “Belly Of The Beast” and “Bury Your Dead” are non-stop batteries of flesh-shredding metallic savagery. The latter’s periodic shifts to clean vocals add a whole other dimension to the song, ones of brief levity before the brazen barrage of brash density resumes.
My ultimate favorite here may just be “Settling The Score“, a darker, much doomier machination of slower grooves and throat-wrenched, mostly shrieker-type vocals. It is just fantastically heavy as it – along with the five other emissions – make for profoundly enjoyable extremity from Mikey Root (vocals), Zach Cullins (guitar), Jake Neace (guitar), Ben Robinson (guitar), J.B. McFadden (bass) and Braxton Burke (drums).
Stream the DREADED DALE ‘Wayward‘ EP in our review or head over to their Bandcamp page [HERE] to stream/purchase it.
