Dog Skull come swinging out of Grand Rapids, Michigan with zero interest in easing listeners in. The Old Man The Boat, the opening track from their self-titled album, is ferocious and confrontational, built on a grimy, narrative-driven core that expresses the suffocating resentment of working under someone else’s thumb. It’s a song about power imbalance, about hating the man and feeling trapped in a cycle one didn’t choose.
The track is all heavy riffs and thick, oppressive atmosphere, fueled by pure frustration and simmering anger. It's a concise, dense, and immediate piece, a sludgy hardcore punk bruiser that wastes no time getting its point across. As an opening number, it sets a blood-boiling tone for the entire record, and establishes Dog Skull as a promising and volatile force in punk rock.
ZR