Reno, Nevada has always been a very pretentious DIY head check with what it puts out and what it lets in as far as entertainment. However, this perfectly cut ruby that Drag Me Under has presented among their treasure trove of three other albums and ep make it very hard not to rave about what makes our city the perfect pressure cooker for hidden emeralds of heavy music.
Drag Me Under is composed of four of the most hilarious and charismatic guys in the city. You can catch them working at Maxwell’s Barbershop, or you can catch them front and center at the classic art-based venue, The Holland Project, on ritualistic occasions. Both efforts are prime evidence that they care deeply about the groundwork that goes into making The Biggest Little City incredible. Their new album, titled Blood Hymns, shines forth the gypsy hearts of more than twelve years as an active band, but endless years knowing the scene from its start.
Kicking into high gear, nailing my top three favorite tracks, with track five being the first, titled “Black Moth.” You can hear chant-worthy lyricism pulled by violent percussion. You can hear guitars that throw punches and slam down on the emphasis of gory persecution. The title track, “Blood Hymns,” brings an even more masochistic visual of dragging bloody bodies through the great basin’s Desolation like something Stephen King forgot to mention. This track pinpoints the band’s deep roots in hardcore laced with the most impressive sporting of merciless grind that match up in contention with Unholy Grave’s album Crucified.
The third and final track I will rant about is “Galactic Acid,” which is the longest track at 5:13 and the most grizzly. It starts out with this dark meditation that brings visuals of broken glass and gravel on a hot summer Reno day, the seemingly endless suffocating desert heat as a terrain of punishment becomes a magnetic mirage of lost clarity and ensuing madness. The track glides on through defining truths about what turns a man’s civility to absolute murderous rebellion. I doubt I will hear anything nearly as battle born this year. Proud of these men.
You can listen to their tracks loud and available to order via this location.
