Album Review – The Dogs ‘Before Brutality’

One of my favourite ways to start a new year is with a new band obsession, which is exactly what I’ve found with The Dogs. I’m not talking about the US proto-punk trio from Michigan, or the post-punk Dogs from London who called it a day in 2011. I’m talking about the Norwegian sextet who have just released their seventh – yep, seventh – album ‘Before Brutality’.

The Dogs made a promise to release a new album during the first week of January every year and they have stuck to that tradition with their latest release, which came out one week into 2019. I got hold of a copy and have had it firmly on repeat since.

They claim that this album’s theme is anger, which is obvious with opener ‘Let’s Start a Riot’. It’s got all the qualities of an angst-ridden punk song, and just as you’ve got your knuckledusters polished and ready to strike, you get the first sense of The Dogs’ humour when after claiming ‘Let’s start a riot’ in a traditional thumping sneer, vocalist Kristopher Schau calms it down with ‘maybe not today, Okay’.

This sets the tone of the rest of the album, which is wall to wall quality with an unexpected touch of wit, and the ten tracks that left me wanting so much more with only 30-minutes total length. All I can say on that note is thank god there are six other albums to satiate my thirst for them.

Each track has a slightly different edge to it where you could imagine Dregen joining them on stage for ‘Who’s Gonna Pay’ and ‘The End Has Begun’ welcomes a mysterious and delightful female vocalist which is another unexpected twist.

The whole thing ends with the haunting ‘Tried To Borrow Some Colours Off Your Rainbow’, a well-crafted song depicting a real-life challenge that so many can relate to. I love the very hopeful analogy of stealing some colour from a friend when you’re in a dark place.

A solid 9/10 offering from these Norweigan rockers, and the perfect way to start my 2019 album collection.