Album Review :: Drenge - Drenge

Drenge

'Drenge'

August 19 2013 (Infectious Music)

7/10

Words: Dave Beech


Despite their name being banded around the pages of both the music and national press, Drenge are a band who seem oblivious to the hype that surrounds them. Even when Labour MP Tom Watson name dropped and recommended them in his resignation letter to Ed Milliband, their reaction was nothing short of nonchalant. “I'm not totally overjoyed that it happened but at the same time I don't really care.” brothers Eoin and Rory Loveless proclaimed upon hearing the news. Thankfully the air of nonchalance they exude doesn't bleed in to their music, and following on from the success of singles such as 'Backwaters' and 'Face Like A Skull', the band are now set to unleash their self-titled full-length debut upon the masses.

Joining the likes of bands such as The Black Keys, 'Drenge' is an aggressive tour de force of a record that really doesn't seem to be the product of just two brothers and even though it is literally just a guitar and drum combo, the eviscerating riffs and relentless percussion make for such violent compositions that all thoughts of any other instrumentation get blown straight out of the window.

Tracks such as 'Gun Crazy' and 'Break You In Half' take no prisoners; aiming straight for the jugular, they rattle through their respective run times with reckless abandon. There are occasional moments in which the evisceration takes a back-seat in favour of more blues-tinged grooves with 'Nothing' being a perfect example. It doesn't take long for usual service to resume however, and the caustic production that permeates the entire record seems present even on slower, more mellow tracks, though I use the term loosely. There really isn't a track on the album that isn't soaked in unrelenting aggression and sleaze, right down to even their names with 'Bloodsports' and 'Dogmeat' demonstrating the band's penchant for dark imagery wonderfully.

It's easy to see why Drenge are the nations new favourite band, and it's only a matter of time before they find themselves catapulted in to the realms of stardom; not a bad feat for two brothers from a county whose main export is cheese and Bakewell Tarts. That said though, after several listens the initial impact of the album does wane slightly, and tracks slowly begin to bleed in to one another. That shouldn't deter from the energy and the musicianship that has gone in to making the record though and the hype in which they have been enveloped in is clearly warranted, it's just by the seventh or eighth run through you can't help but feel as if you've heard it all before, and you probably have. In short, it's garage rock. Though rarely is garage rock this violent, this debased and this uncompromising. If you haven't heard Drenge yet, you can almost guarantee you will have done soon.