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Class 6(66)

Dog Eat Dog: All boro kings

27/05/11  ||  Habakuk

Introduction

It’s gateway band time! Yep, despite these chumps definitely never making it into the metal-archives evAr, they can claim for themselves to be one of the most influential bands in getting young Habakuk to where he is today. We’re talking I’ve-been listening-to-this-since-4th-grade-influential. Yet despite being connected to the likes of Biohazard, the Cro-Mags or Bad Brains, I have a feeling this has largely been forgotten. Not by me though! This album is absolutely integral in my liking of heavy music. And when I used the progressive form “I’ve been listening” earlier, I meant it. This is not one of these albums I dig up to take a laugh at how I used to listen to this. This is still spinning and holding up big time. Especially for a crossover album – do you even remember that absolutely 90s mix of Hip Hop and rock/metal/hardcore?

Songwriting

9. You see, the inherent problem with albums from that genre was and is the fact that by mixing different elements with varying focus on either one or the other, consistency goes down the shitter. And that one good track you’ve heard before somewhere – yeah, that’s usually the only standout one. Not with “All boro kings”. This album keeps the perfect balance from start to finish. Chunky low-end grooves make skillfully crafted tunes flow into a fantastically natural whole, combining fat guitars, rap-influenced shouts, a saxophone (!) and the occasional punkish outburst or absolutely bad-ass riff. This is music that’s fucken breathing groove, made to send whole audiences jumping. I’ve been there. For you to get an idea about that, I recommend checking out Dog Eat Dog’s Dynamo 1995 festival footage on Youtube for some nasty 90s attire and bad-assery deluxe. So yeah, no matter if the band go into faster territory (“Think”), rely solely on groove (“What comes around”), keep it chilled-out (“Queen”) or mix all of these elements, the result is more than convincing.

Production

10. Talk about a great, down-to-earth production job. The guitars are thick and absolutely massive, yet still they sound so natural you can actually hear the clean string vibrations from time to time. The bass is warm and prominent. The well-balanced drums provide constant kicks in the gut. The saxophone and vocals sound awesome. There is nothing to debate here really. This couldn’t be much better.

Guitars

8. Soundwise, top notch, as stated. If the whole nu-metal bullshit had one good thing about it, it was the fat guitars. And guess where they borrowed those. That’s right, Sherlock: Crossover. Dan Nastasi and Sean Kilkenny aptly work themselves through the songs, mostly relying on deep, slowhand-style open chords interspersed with simple, chugging riff accentuations. And they don’t shy away from pauses either, which is definitely a welcome change to whatever wankery-band the kids are fond of these days. You won’t find any twin harmony shred action here, but the two guitars work together as one big punch. Simple, thick, heavy, good shit.

Vocals

9. John Connor (yep, from Terminator) is quite the energetic frontman, and he clearly knew how to shout. Don’t expect any Biohazard style tough-guyisms here, this dude just used a normal vocal range and excelled more by flow than tone. I have to say I really like his bratty, snarly spitting. That’s right, he frequently moves into rap directions. Does it matter? No. The thing is he never goes out and tries anything funny. He knows his range and skill, and that’s just perfect. Sometimes it’s good to hear someone in his comfort zone rather than pushing the boundaries for no good reason.

Saxophone

10. Yes, this gets its own section, because I can. And because it’s an important part of why this album is unique and awesome at the same time. Taking a role resembling that of a lead guitar, the saxophone provides a certain lightness to the music that makes it a thoroughly positive listen (how un-metal) despite a thick and heavy feel stemming from the “normal” instruments. I’m definitely not a brass fan, but the way the first notes of “If these are good times” kick in just puts a big fucken smile on my face. Notably enough, the sax is neither gimmicky nor too upfront to detract from the general awesomeness. It just works. And for some reason the band never made any of the sax players a full member. Bad luck, Scott Mueller. And Paul Vercesi. And Kevin Reilly.

Bass

8. Once again, the sound is absolutely ace. Talk about a full, low-end bass sound. Hey, it sounds bassy! Round, warm and without frills in sound, Dave Neabore’s playing lies a great foundation to the rest of the music, and always stays loud enough to actually be observed and appreciated. The nature of the sound actually makes it hard to believe Neabore used a pick, but that’s how it is. Quite versatile in his role, he’s heard propelling songs forward by himself, spicing things up with a bit of fretboard wandering or simply following along and supporting the guitars. Good shit for all bass lovers out there, as Hip Hop influence in this respect means more of it can be found than usually in metal.

Drums

8.5. It’s very ungrateful trying to convince metalheads of good drum jobs if they don’t feature any kind of technical fuzz. Fuck all of it though, Dave Maltby has such smooth grooves that every beat just feels right. He alternates from fast punk patterns to classic, slow support work, but in the most lively way imaginable – not the bullshit kind of crash cymbal jumpdafuckup groove. I’ve listened to this album to death, and still I fall for every thumpy bass drum hit, the little extra snare hits, fills and whatnot. Definitely a job done right.

Lyrics

7. No here’s a change to our usual escapist satanic bullshit. This is absolutely ungrim, denecroed life struggle stuff debating issues from gun control to fun with alcohol. It’s nice to shout along, but pretty inane in the end. Completely contrary to goatraping hacksaw butchery.

Cover art

5. Well yeah, not the most elaborate piece of art. At least it’s not some shitty photograph.

Logo

3. What’s this – Arial bold?

Booklet

7. Lyrics on comic drawing backgrounds. A 90s baggy pants band picture. Thank yous. And shit.

Overall and ending rant

Not even the band themselves have been able to recreate the awesome spirit permeating through this recording. I’ve tried to find other “rap metal” albums getting close to this and have failed. While metal of all sorts at least is still produced in varying quality, music like this isn’t made at all anymore, it seems. Maybe its time has passed, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to begin with, but even if this is the only great hip hop / metal mashup, I’m happy. It’s that good. Here’s to another 15 years!

8.5

  • Band
  • John Connor: vocals
  • Dan Nastasi: guitars, vocals
  • Sean Kilkenny: guitars
  • Dave Neabore: bass, vocals
  • Brandon Finley: drums
  • Tracklist
  • 01. If these are good times
  • 02. Think
  • 03. No fronts
  • 04. Pull my finger
  • 05. Who’s the king
  • 06. Strip song
  • 07. Queen
  • 08. In the doghouse
  • 09. Funnel king
  • 10. What comes around

Class 6(66) -reviews

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