DAKINIZ - Raging Shouts

9 songs
32:37 minutes
***** ****
(self-released)

Bandpage

French power trio Dakiniz started their career by releasing EPs in 2013 and 2014, followed by a first longplayer in 2017. It took them another three years for its successor Raging Shouts to be released, and frankly it seems that they took the time to work hard on their sound. The songs are more varied than in the past, and taking a trip to London to record the album may have given the musicians a necessary new outlook that makes the nine songs sound fresher than anything they did in the past.

The Parisians basically play noise rock with a strong hint of the Eighties and Nineties of the last millennium, and by adding elements of garage, indie and especially punk rock, they make sure that the good half hour of Raging Shouts is full of surprises and dynamic tension. The opener NWO is a dense and gloomy noise rock stomper that draws maybe parallels to Girls Against Boys, while the speedier Zulu Radio Star with its punk attitude definitely reminds me of Dead Kennedys, from the surf guitar sound to the manic vocals. Handbrake and Score One For Satan have been pre-released as singles and fit well between the band’s darker and more punk side. The album continues in that direction before it ends with the seven and a half minute long The Last One, a really long song for Dakiniz, and while it has a really memorable chorus, it is possibly a little too long for its own good.

And not even thirty-three minutes, Raging Shouts is certainly not a long record, but its dynamic intensity works perfectly in the time span. What I mostly enjoy here is how Dakiniz strike the right balance between catchy songwriting and a truly suspenseful instrumentation that makes this one something to enjoy in the head as well as in the gut. Good work, guys!