A prime example of a band living up to the expectations their claims give.
May 10th 2022
I don’t usually end up following that band, you know the one, they show up on your Twitter, Instagram, whatever, and say that you have the ideal music taste to enjoy their band, and compare themselves to a super prevalent band, and then the actual songs are incredibly underwhelming and that’s 15 minutes that you’ll never get back. So when a brand-new band called Dopamine followed my twitter and put up a tweet claiming to be similar to Palaye Royale, My Chemical Romance, Bring Me The Horizon, and multiple others, I went to their profile, ready to block them. However, something here was different. I have a lot of Palaye Royale mutuals on twitter, and they had followed the band back. This was unusual, and was enough to convince me their song warranted a listen.
First, we have to address that they give quite a tall order for who they claim to sound similar to/for fans of. However, seeing as they deliver, it's more than justified. This track has little notes of most, if not all, of the artists and bands they listed, however interestingly enough, what I hear most in it is the quasi-fictional band The Relentless, and of a Maneskin ballad, such as Vent’anni (However perhaps they did not want to make a list based on this one track, I would love to hear if they believe these bands could represent their sound as a whole). The track is called Sorry, of course, and it slaps. Very much so.
I feel like the Palaye Royale and Black Veil Brides influences stay present throughout the track, and you get some Bring Me The Horizon and My Chemical Romance, in specific areas, such as the bridge and the guitar solo respectively, I also hear a bit of Yungblud, Asking Alexandria, Sleeping With Sirens and Motionless in White, they just are more background influences, the song in general makes me think of a MIW ballad, and I hear something of Kellin Quinn’s inflection, if not his unnatural high pitch, in the vocalist (I will be sure to get the names and positions of all the band members in time for the next track) (and trust me, the Remington Leith influences are a huge selling point, so I’m not in need of falsetto’s here). It will be interesting to hear more songs as they come out, to see where they go from here, as I assume from this track that they are aiming for a heavy, yet melodic, metal-tinged rock. Another thing I’d love to hear is how this band came to be, I’m curious as to how they got started.
Influences: They Claim The Following
-Palaye Royale
-Bring Me The Horizon
-My Chemical Romance
-Black Veil Brides
-Sleeping With Sirens
-Asking Alexandria
-Motionless In White
-Yungblud
-These influences all appear, some just as a hint, others, such as Palaye Royale, are present throughout the track, especially in the Remington Leith like quality to the vocalist.
-Lastly, I think they may want to add these two to their list:
The Relentless: A band made for/featured in the movie “American Satan”, and spinoff TV series “Paradise City”. They are of course, not a real band, however there has thus far been two albums released under the fictional moniker, their fictional version features two members of Asking Alexandria, and Andy Black of BVB, and the recordings are Remington Leith on vocals, and the writing credits (for the songs that aren't covers, which some are) go to Remington, members of After The Burial and Born Of Osiris, some other Sumerian Records affiliated songwriters, and interestingly enough Sumerian Records head Ash Avildsen himself. This “band” sounds equally similar as any of the others.
Maneskin: I may be wrong about this one, but I hear a note of Italian band Maneskin in this track, and if that holds true in future tracks, that may be another fanbase a band like this would want to align themselves with.
The song seems well mixed, especially for their first ever release, the vocals are wonderful, guitar and drum tones are great too. The vocalist seems comfortable delivering the lines. The lyrics are pretty good too, for the most part they don’t mess around, and get right to the point. In particular, the vocal melody of the lines “I’m a mess, fucked up, I am everything I hate. I’m a liability” sits just right, and the lyricism in the line “Are you listening to me, I’m crossing over, Not six feet under” is particularly good. I would like to see how well they perform in a live setting when that is available. The song clocks in at 3:58, neither leaving you feeling shortchanged nor overstaying its welcome, it packs in a few renditions of the chorus, a couple verses, a bridge, and a guitar solo to finish out the track, it only builds as it goes on, and doesn’t feature any dull moments. The lyrics are sound, the production and recording are remarkably good for a band’s first recording, the lyrical content is well structured, the song has an overall meaning, and is also just a fun listen for any fan of the bands they have listed. They have started tracking their next single, Self Made, as of today, and I am excited to see where they go with it.
As my first review, I feel obligated to explain I will be marking every review using mainly a letter grade, with the following
0: Kill it with fire
F: I didn’t like it
50: It wasn’t bad
D-/D/D+: It was okay
C-/C/C+: It was good
B-/B/B+: A really good song
A-/A/A+: Practically Perfect In Every Way
100: Absolute best songs of all time
For Dopamine – Sorry I will be giving a grade of A (the approximate %, just this once I will reveal, was 92). It was a wonderful song, and I have no complaints, I eagerly await Self Made.
EDIT - January 10th 2023. In light of returning to this old post and writing one of the current ones, I am officially adding 99 as a grade. To define - 99: A 100 quality track that only would not make that cut in light of higher quality tracks from the same artist improving on what I percieved as perfection. In light of this I will be giving both Sorry and Dopamines newest track as of today, "Sick of You" the grade of 99.
You can find Dopamine Here: https://linktr.ee/Dopamine.Band
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