The Dirty Nil
The Lash
DINE ALONE
The Dirty Nil have always been committed to making ROCK ’N’ ROLL—all caps, all bluster. And they’re very good at it, too, as the Canadian band have demonstrated ever since releasing their 2016 debut full-length Higher Power a decade after they formed in high school. And while they’ve never really fucked too much with their formula of catchy, full-throttle riffs and a euphoric, explosive hybrid of punk rock and metal, they’ve been evolving steadily over that time, as founding members and mainstays Luke Bentham and Kyle Fisher continue to crack the door open a little wider each time as to what a typical Nil song sounds like.
The Lash doesn’t reverse that progress or expansion, but at the same time it’s a deliberate return to their raw and loud punk ’n’ roll roots. On the whole, anyway. The record was inspired by a trip to the Vatican, of all places, where Bentham was mesmerized by a violent bronze relief with the title The Horrors of War, which depicts two men fighting over a knife. That was reinterpreted by UK-based artist Jack Sabbat as the skeletons on The Lash’s cover, and became the main source of inspiration for both this album’s sonic and visual aesthetics.
It begins with the joyously gnarly “Gallop of the Hounds,” a blisteringly high-octane rush of noise and emotion that’s both heavily stylized and incredibly raw. Yet, somewhat surprisingly, there’s an underlying tenderness present, too. Even on “Fail in Time” and “Rock n’ Roll Band”—both an ode to the trials and tribulations of being in a band and a middle finger to the mechanisms of the music industry—there’s a real vulnerability lying beneath the noise. It comes to the fore on the quieter songs here, namely the gorgeous, dreamy, melancholy lilt of “This Is Me Warning Ya” (perhaps the most moving song The Dirty Nil have ever written), the slightly more boisterous but no less emotionally fragile “That Don’t Mean It Won’t Sting,” and the introspective contemplation of “Spider Dream.”
But when it’s loud, it’s loud—unfettered, amps-cranked-to-11 maximum rock ’n’ roll. Just listen to the rush of “Do You Want Me?,” the snarling, grotesque chug of “They Won’t Beat Us,” or the crunching, epic finale of “I Was a Henchman”—all three of which terrorize in exactly the right way. Harrowing and fun in equal measure, The Lash is a record that redefines who The Dirty Nil are while also reaffirming that they’re the same as they ever were. It’s a beautiful contradiction, and a stunning fifth record from a consistently phenomenal band.
