Dry Socket

Reviews

Dry Socket Sorry for Your Loss LP

Powerhouse hardcore from Portland—DRY SOCKET sounds confident and aggro on their first LP Sorry for Your Loss. An album focusing on grief, internal struggle, and finding your place in the world; you can hear the frustration in vocalist Dani Allen’s voice, which really tends to be the focal point on the album. The delivery is fantastic, sounding feral and desperate in equal measure, my favorite example being “Cultivated Fore.” Sonically, DRY SOCKET opts for a more angular guitar sound rather than the blunt force usually heard in this style. It’s cool and refreshing, making for a very engaging listen. Check out “Equinox” and “Born Again.”

Dry Socket Cessation EP

Why fuck around with both sides of the record when all of your action fits on one? DRY SOCKET only needs three songs to make their point, so if you didn’t get it the first time, just go listen to all three again. The formula is simple: pissed, hardcore, punk. “Phantom Pains” delivers chills from the moment the needle drops with the band’s stance (no immunity, no freedom from accountability, there is no unity with white supremacy) and sets the stage for a pure assault. Dani’s vocals are dead on-point and the riffs are straight for the throat—check the start/stop after the intro around twenty seconds into “Red,” because this is the shit that sets the real bands apart from the folks who are phoning it in while projecting the “correct” image. Full endorsement from this eager listener…from content to delivery to presentation, Cessation is a fukkn beast.

Dry Socket Shiver cassette

Scathing and brutal hardcore out of Portland, Oregon that delivers an impressive wall of unflinching attitude. The record label described it as “unapologetic,” which initially sounded to me like kind of a generic punk descriptor—like, when have punks ever been apologetic (with the exception of Milwaukee’s chronically unsung the APOLOGETICS)? But, it turns out I agree that DRY SOCKET really drips with whatever it is that is the opposite of an apology. There’s plenty to love here with the heaviest of breakdowns, occasional weird guitar riffs, and experimental timing. But the real gem is the hurricane-force vocals, steeped in such a thick concentration of fury that they are legitimately kind of terrifying, an effect that keeps growing the more times I listen through.