4 out of 5

Label: Skin Graft Records

Produced by: Steve Albini; Andris Balins and Blake Fleming (remaster)

I knew of Dazzling Killmen before I really started exploring heavier music. I grew up in St. Louis; I have to believe that due to DK being from there accounted for the frequency with which I’d spot Recuerda in the used bins at, I dunno, Vintage Vinyl or Streetside Records. It imprinted on me with the bands visceral name; the creepy artwork; and that label – Skin Graft – which just sounded mean. I recognized that acts like Cannibal Corpse existed in some kind of grind world, and that groups like Hatebreed were all shouty, but I was zero aware of more indie-leaning hardcore music.

Years on, and I’d be collecting the Skin Graft label, and had kind of filed Dazzling Killmen as eldsters in the scene – as in dated. I owned their albums but did not listen with discerning ears; I had “cooler” hardcore from Hydra Head, where the guitars went all wicky wicky mathy on me. Some further years on, and maybe with some earned discernment, not only would I revisit – and be blown away by – DK’s few releases, but I’d also see how clearly they influenced so, so many, either directly or indirectly.

Through Recuerda, a compilation, and the other SG releases, I had the majority of the band’s output, including some tracks – again, Recuerda – from their debut, Dig Out the Switch. …But I lacked that album itself. Thankfully, that label I’m still collecting has put out a remastered version of it, and I gotta tell you: through all of the recounted years mentioned above, and after the hundreds of albums to which I’ve listened: there is nothing quite as visceral as Dazzling Killmen. Dig Out the Switch is definitely a slightly less refined take on their sound, but it’s all there on display, just a bit messier.

As a trio, Dazzling Killmen are closer to punk / thrash than the clearer jazz influences of Face of Collapse; at the same time, Darin Gray’s burbling basslines are not punk or thrash, and the way guitarist / vocalist Nick Sakes networks his stop and start riffage with Blake Fleming’s pummeling, nonstop drumming tells of the elements the group would soon embellish. But the patience for that isn’t quite there on Dig Out the Switch, with the majority of tracks landing at under three minutes, and centered around a clearer old school punk template of bashing instruments and shouting. Except: you’ll notice that we never quite get around to anything like a chorus, because the group is already trying to dissect this stuff, with the entirety of those under-three-minutes delivering very extended melodies. That is: instead of moving in sections, as they would on Face, Switch’s songs are very patchwork, and only when stepping far, far back can you hear that it’s actually one work. It’s all delivered so in-your-face and without pause that this approach still works, though; like you don’t get the chance to slow down to worry about it much, and Sakes – in full-throated ireful glory, here – has this lovely pulsing delivery to his vocals (echoed in his guitar playing) that kind of drags, or forces you along. Whenever this begins to feel a bit much, or perhaps repetitive, there are breaks: an instrumental; or the end of the album, which slows down for some longer songs.

While, as mentioned, I don’t own the original, Steve Albini’s recording marks are all over the cellar wall-rebounding sound of the instruments, and given the sometimes muted mastering of classic DK, I fully believe remasterers Andris Balins and Fleming did a lot to amp this sound up to modern digital cleanliness and punchiness, with each layer of the music coming through in full, undistorted, and yet raw as hell.

The perfection of broken down hardcore would be delivered on the album following this one. Dig Out the Switch is a bit too manic for that rating. However, decades beyond the point – and through multiple iterations of my expectations for the band – this stuff still stings in the best of ways, and is as mean and original as ever. No one tops Sakes when he’s all-out; no other band sounds like Dazzling Killmen. And it’s awesome to be able to discover that that was true on this debut album as well.