Dire Insanity: ‘My Escape: Home Recordings EP’ [Review]
As this EP’s complete title implies, My Escape is clearly intended as a demonstration of London/Guildfordian metal band Dire Insanity’s abilities. As a set of early demo recordings, it does the job – this is clearly a group of competent and driven metallers eager to make their mark on the world. But as a commercial release (which it technically is, given that you’re encouraged to pay for it), it sadly falls below par.
Metal is a highly competitive genre already overflowing with thousands of bands who have their shred skills, aggressive vocals, and airtight production locked down – and this makes product differentiation absolutely essential in order for a metal band to make a living from their passion (before literally pissing the cash away by ‘investing’ it all on crates of Jaegermeister, of course). It pains me to say it, but at present Dire Insanity have little going for them in this regard. The EP also suffers from mixing issues – there are some great riffs in there, but when the levels suddenly drop or fluctuate they completely lose the ‘punch in the face’ impact that is obviously intended. And as awesome as Drumkit From Hell and Superior Drummer are, it can take a lot of work to make them sound good (think Animals As Leaders or Periphery here).
However, it’s not all bad news – Blacksand and The Silent Dissolve are both intense tracks, and it’s clear from Dire Insanity’s Facebook page that they have a pretty awesome sense of humour and a solid work ethic…so I’m betting that in time they’ll be back with something to truly call their own.
Check out Dire Insanity’s EP here: http://direinsanity.bandcamp.com/
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