Just Another Music Blog Reviews Donots’ “Wake The Dogs”
Music review blog, Just Another Music Blog, recently did a great review for the newest Donots album Wake The Dogs. In their review they compare the Donots to bands like The Clash and The Ramones. Those are quite great bands to be compared to! The review also says that “Wake the Dogs’ is a great combination of where punk originated, and where it’s heading.” Check out the review below:
It seems these days it’s harder to find a punk band with obvious influences like The Ramones and The Clash. However, I feel as though the Donots remind us of these bands where the punk genre started.
The Donots are a German punk band who have been around since 1993. Don’t sound familiar? Well, they really shouldn’t. ‘Wake the Dogs’ is only their second album to be released in the United States, although they have a great footing and following in not only Germany, but most of Europe. They have already toured with popular bands such as Green Day, blink-182, NoFX, The Offspring, The Cure, and many more.
‘Wake the Dogs’ is a great combination of where punk originated, and where it’s heading. The entire album as a whole has the harder, ‘stripped-down’, sound of classic punk, obviously sharing similar sounds with The Ramones and The Clash. However, along with that, there’s also an underlying softer sound, showing that this album is a good mixture of older punk meets newer punk. This definitely shows where the album is very fluid within the genre. The first song on the album, the title song ‘Wake the Dogs’, seems to have a similar sound to NoFX and even Weezer. It’s a different kind of punk than what we’re used to here in the United States, but it’s certainly a breath of fresh air for us rockers over here.
However, in the third song, I feel like we really see the variety this band has. ‘Come With Me’ share a sound similar to blink-182 and Sum 41. It’s more relaxed, softer, and a nice sort of breath from the hard music and rough vocals of the rest of the album.
And the music isn’t just what makes this album punk. The lyrics are just as fantastic as the sound. My favorite song, lyric-wise would have to be ‘Come With Me’. Although most punk music is about going against the government and making it on your own, these lyrics seem to almost push people to do better. It tells us that ‘when we take on that wall, don’t look down.’ Don’t look back at what you’re getting over, just get over it. It’s a good punk anthem.
The vocals also fit the sound to a T. Not every band that has a rougher sound to it has a vocalist to match, Donots does. Ingo Knollmann has the perfect vocals to go along with the rough guitars, bass, and driving drum beats. Along with that, the special vocal guest in ‘So Long’ and ‘Going Through the Motions’, Frank Turner, adds a great juxtaposition to the two songs.
Overall, I don’t really have a complaint about this album. It’s nice to have a new punk album here in the States that stays true to the basic roots of punk. Everything about this album makes it a winner – the variety, the overall sound, the punk theme around it, and even the maturity it shows. Great continuation of an already amazing genre, and I can’t wait to find the rest of Donots’ albums.
You can check out the article at Just Another Music Blog here.
You can also purchase or stream Wake The Dogs right here:
