Dog Last Page‘s first full length, Drunken Dream, is an album made for hard rock and metal fans. With an EP from 2015 and a single in 2021, the band hasn’t released a lot of music so there’s a lot of anticipation about what a full length will offer. From the start, Dog Last Page presents a hard rock experience that never lets go.
“Drunken Dream” is a slow-moving and crunchy introduction. It captures brooding energy across each of the instruments and vocals. At six and a half minutes, the song is deliberate as it moves through each verse. The English vocals also help attract more attention with raspy and growling vocals.
Looking through YouTube, it looks like some of these songs were performed live before this official album so there’s a lot of practice and polish on each track. If you’ve been looking for aggressive rock, Dog Last Page has you covered entirely. Drunken Dream is like a time capsule because it captures a slice of music that isn’t common in South Korea.
While the album is best heard as a start-to-finish listen, there are a lot of standout tracks. “Killing Machine” speeds up the tempo and adds some hardcore background vocals, 80s metal, and punk all blended together. “4758” was their 2021 single and enters hardcore punk. It really shows that Dog Last Page is spread across a lot of genres and they’re able to harness different styles without a problem.
They also chose to record three songs from their first EP, “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Trampled,” and “Metal is dead” are all included. It adds variety to the album. With 12 songs, it gives the album more space to explore than sticking to one major style. Later songs also bring in a bit of blues, especially with the guitar riffs.
Drunken Dream isn’t an album for everyone. Metal, hard rock, and hardcore fans will find songs that stick out. More casual fans might find Dog Last Page to be a little repetitive. But the album is 44 minutes of amazing music and worth the time to dive into.
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Chris P
Korean Indie owner and Editor at Large. Constantly looking for new music and working on library parity on Spotify and YouTube Music.