You know how screwed up our country is right now? It turns out people across the ocean are pissed off, too. The UK’s own Eat Dirt kick off their debut EP, Eat Dirt-I, with a 32-second hardcore anthem, also titled “Eat Dirt,” backed up by gang vocals performed by an eerily effective children’s choir yelling – you guessed it – “eat dirt!”
“Pigs” is next (guess whom this title refers to) and is three times as long as “Eat Dirt.” The band tones it down a notch and there’s a semblance of melody found here, though Eat Dirt is still very much a hardcore punk band.
Eat Dirt is comprised of former members of now-defunct bands I’d never heard of who had lost interest in music but were brought back together in anger. This band is less than a year old, formed largely due to “the whole Brexit thing,” but perhaps because of their past band experience and in part because of the fine recording quality for this EP, they sound like they’ve been around for a while.
“.48” is forty-eight seconds long, leading up to the grand finale “Dead,” which clocks in at an epic 2:08. Honestly, this band is as much fun as they are angry. Not that I’m laughing at them; they’re awesome! They’ve taken everything that’s great about the punk-core genre and condensed it into four songs clocking in under five minutes. Stylistically the band the band belongs on the same shelf as Sick Of It All, early Rise Against (think “Dead Ringer” and “To The Core”) and the more recent PEARS. And in case you’re not positive what the lyrics are and you’re still not sure what the band is about, the press release came with the headline “A Pissed Off Punk Rock Collective From London, UK.”
Eat Dirt-I is a free download pretty much everywhere – no excuses not to listen to this one – and loses points only because of brevity. Other than that, though, this is one of my favorite releases of the year so far.
4.5/5 Stars