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DOMPAMINE - SELF MADE: Review

FUUUUUUUUCK!!!!

June 21st 2022



HOLY FUCK!


I am in love. I am in love with a band, and that band is Dopamine.

Self Made dropped on Friday, and I listened to it at 8 in the morning that day. I then felt the dread that there were FOUR HOURS that this song was out in my area, that I missed and will never get back.


Little context: Dopamine is a band, they popped up on twitter on March 25th, and I heard of them when they gave me a follow and recommended themselves to a very tall order of fandoms on May 3rd via this tweet:

Almost didn't do it.


I had gotten tired of those, what I will call "REAL pull the pin game!" bands. Bands that are like all those pull the pin ads on mobile games, because you check them out, and then instead you get a crappy RPG/Idle, or with bands, something thats not like any of the bands they claim , and you lose faith in the universe, but Dopamine had made such a huge claim I mentally went "Okay, bet", and checked out their first song Sorry. I loved it! I wont go much further than that here, but suffice it to say I liked the track. I gave the track an A+, and after they showed equal and more kindness towards me, I decided I HAD to have them for my first group chat interview, which went really well. Then after weeks of anticipation, Self Made dropped.


I'm still in shock.


I could not believe my ears. Remember, these guys are my age, late teens/early 20's, going through post secondary, and this is only their second song written and recorded. But yet this track holds it's own amongst songs by well established and experienced artists, its a masterpiece!


The song is, to compare to Palaye Royale, who I consider to be one of the most similar bands to them: In style and structure, much like Mr.Doctor Man and You'll Be Fine, but in tone, meaning, lyrical content, and, pure SLAPS energy, is more like Anxiety, an anthemic banger off Palaye's 3rd album The Bastards. However that is too overgeneralized. I want you to also imagine that the whole song carries a slight vibe of Bring Me The Horizons album That's the Spirit, and of Scottish band Vukovi, but also Yungblud's unreleased song The Emperor. The song also has a Maneskin type bass groove bridge that you could almost spiritually could tell was going to be there.


Of course, the song overall is a trans-anthem, speaking of Levi's experiences, feelings, and memories. However, its most powerful quality was described perfectly by Levi in my Group Chat Interview with the band a couple weeks ago.


"I am a firm believer in beauty is the eye of the beholder, I wanted to deliver a song that everyone could relate to for any personal reason they may have despite the song having specific meaning to me. At the very roots of it, it IS for the my space in the trans community because that’s the influence I had when writing the lyrics but I really wanted to use this song to create a space that brings people together no matter their identity, so overall self made is a song of self acceptance and appreciation, for everyone out there that feels looked down on for whatever reason and encourages them to bypass that, to be unapologetically themselves and embrace every part of that, everywhere you go there’s going to be someone that disagrees with or dislikes you for whatever reason, even stupid ones, but their opinions are obsolete, as long as you aren’t harming anyone or yourself the only thing that really matter is that you are happy and enjoying your life and self made is a reminder of that."


(NOTE: Also in this interview, we talked about record labels, and after some consideration, I think personally I would love to see them on one of the following: Sumerian - Which would place them alongside Black Veil Brides, Asking Alexandria, Sleeping With Sirens, Bad Omens, and of course, Palaye Royale. Fearless - Making I Dont Know How But They Found Me, I Prevail, Pierce The Veil, Plain White T's, Set It Off and Starset their labelmates. Epitaph, label of Falling In Reverse, Bring Me The Horizon, Architects, etc. Reprise, placing them with My Chemical Romance. Pete Wentz's label DCD2. Better Noise, who Asking Alexandria just transferred to, Escape The Fate, and Nothing More. Geffen and/or Locomotion, placing them with Yungblud, or any of the labels with Elektra music group, like Fueled by Ramen or Roadrunner records.)

The track is incredible, perfectly structured and written, and recorded with impeccable quality, especially considering that they are on their second single ever, though part of the recording's quality must be credited to Open Eyes Productions, who they have recorded both singles with. This band has such raw potential, the chorus alone of this song is proof of their talent, one of the best I've heard in a while for sure, and Levi's voice & accent, are incredible. The song actually surpassed the first singles streams on day one (but for some reason only a small portion of them have been counted by Spotify.


I'm going to stop messing around and give this track its grade: 100. EASY 100, no debate, and I have defined 100 as meaning best of all time and/or: "If the world is ending to some degree, and I have a USB designed to survive the apocalypse that can only contain 32GB of music, and anything I give below an A grade is highly unlikely to survive in any other form, does this song/album derserve to be preserved on the USB in my view? Self Made checks both boxes, and deserves this grade in every way.


You can find all of Dopamine's links here: https://linktr.ee/Dopamine.Band


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