Review: DSGNS – Hexes

DSGNS
Hexes

Pluto Records
Street: 08.28
DSGNS = Botch + Norma Jean + The Chariot

A mediocre Botch knock off—that’s what you need to know about DSGNS. Fact is, We Are the Romans exists, and it’s pretty much game over if you’re trying to break out in this style. DSGNS’ press materials relay that they’re the antithesis of “Disney metal,” and unfortunately, not being something else doesn’t make a band great. Hexes isn’t perhaps as bad as all of this implies—it’s chaotic and angry, and if those are the only required criteria, this may satisfy. A brief glimpse of what is possible comes with only 25 seconds left in the album, when “Delete All” turns to a locked-in groove that is carried to completion solely by the bass. But those last 25 seconds can’t salvage the prior 32 minutes of well-intentioned but uninspired music. A much lesser version of American Nervoso–era hardcore, DSGNS are passable but not compelling. –Peter Fryer