Sing To This! Reviews “Wake The Dogs”
Music blog, Sing to This did a nice review of Donots’ Wake The Dogs. You can read the review below:
“I was asked by OK! Good Records to review both this album and another (which I will be posting later on). As usual with albums that I am asked to review, I won’t put a rating on it since I don’t want it to appear as if the rating was—one way or another—biased on the fact that I was asked by the company to review one of their albums. All I have to say there is that I am beyond honored to be asked to write a review, and hope that I can accurately present the album in a way that shows that.
With that out of the way, on to the review! I’d never heard of the Donots before I was asked to do this, so I went and did a little research (though not as much as I would have liked, but this will suffice). The name “Donot” has sort of become a last name, if you will, of all the band members. While the only two who are actually related are the lead guitarist and the lead vocalist (if judging by their last names means anything), all the band members seem to carry the name “Donot” as part of their identity. Fun little tidbit.
The music reminded me of what you would get if you took New Found Glory, Rise Against, and maybe a little Green Day, put them all together, and gave them a German singer. It takes that very very punk sound, puts it with some of the same heavier guitar sounds familiar to Rise Against’s, and has this sort of bouncy rhythm that ties it all together. The drums really solidify the punk sound as well; they drive that bashing cadence that controls the song.
The only thing I had a hard time with was the vocals. Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of punk to begin with so this is merely opinion, but I have difficulties getting into music where the singing includes a lot of heaviness that borders on yelling. I don’t have anything against it, necessarily, but I did enjoy the songs that carried more of a melody. (“I Don’t Wanna Wake Up” is probably my personal favorite, after multiple listens through the album, followed closely by “Control” and “So Long”.)
So anyhow. If you like some good punk music, check it out because it is (at least in my experience) as quintessentially punk as it gets.”
You can also purchase or stream Wake The Dogs right here:
