Dick Dabs & The Shatters – “The Great Don’t Fall (Part 2)” & “Hotter Than Hell”

“Dick Dabs & The Shatters (Me & Tony)” is a self-titled EP release by the collaborative project featuring multi-instrumentalist Jud A. Moller and guitar player Tony Soliz. Metal, and what it means to be a metal band, is changing. As genre lines continue to be blurred to the point of near extinction, those who make heavy music now have the opportunity to experiment and mix things up like never before. This 6 track EP sees the project dived their metallic crunch between Thrash and Metalcore, creating a sound that looks into the nooks and crannies of metal to see what’s there. It’s a true melting pot of ideas, and sets Dick Dabs & The Shatters up as a genuinely impressive creative force who can do heavy in as many ways as it can present itself to them.

On the opening track “Don’t Pretend”, the instruments come in, and transition into dark, harrowing sounds that enhance the glorious collision of Jud A. Moller’ freestyle singing and guitarist Tony Soliz’s electric buzz. The following track, “Hotter Than Hell”, is even heavier than its predecessor, with fast chugging guitar riffs underlining the vocals.

“The Great Don’t Fall (Part 2)” opens with the drumbeat, before the guitars explode onto the scene. Turn up the volume, and the riffs will smash your eardrums into your skull. This is some of the slickest fusion between thrash and metalcore I’ve heard in a long time, and makes for a rip roaring blast. What makes it so slick, is the fact that Dick Dabs & The Shatters don’t pay too much attention to conventional forms or any other pussy-footing.

They deliver full-frontal assaults that border on the manic, as they throw a straight up middle finger to corporate rock and all the other nu-metal bullshit. “Stan’s Gay (The Cock & Balls Song)”, is the epitome of this sonic state, as there are so many contrasting sounds running back and forth across the template, you’ll lose your orientation. “Drag Me Down” slows the tempo, but not the creative intensity as the arrangement continues to build on flipped-out layers.

The EP closer, “The Darkside Prevails (In HELL)” offers a breakneck slab of unchained aggression, where infectiousness is traded off for disorientating brutality, as Dick Dabs & The Shatters construct an engaging, blood-pumping record that doesn’t outstay its welcome, but challenges you to the limit. All throughout this EP, Jud A. Moller and Tony Soliz deliver an adrenaline-pumping revitalization of a genre that many thought musically played dead.

“Dick Dabs & The Shatters (Me & Tony)” is a complete aural onslaught – 6 tracks of power, intensity and mayhem. The twisted riffs are infectious and addictive, coming from a seemingly endless palette, while the vocals aren’t content with sticking to the same rigid formulas used by Jud A. Moller’s peers. Instead he goes above and beyond, into a whole new territory, where he redefines what the vocals are supposed to do on these tracks.

It will take multiple listens before the full depth and meaning of the lyrics are revealed, as there are loads of demented, twisted effects to work your way through on each track. You’ll hear skittish breakdowns, killer grooves, and hazy pitch-shifting, as well as whirring heaviness.

Dick Dabs & The Shatters’ musical dexterity and creative boldness makes them stand out, while their lack of conformity and vast ambition should be applauded. Essentially no other band sounds quite like them, or vice versa. And in today’s scene of cut and paste music that’s a mighty amazing feat in itself.