Feral Trash – Dead Eyes EP

Feral Trash play garage rock. They come from Canada but they could basically be from anywhere, as long as there are garages to rock in. This genre isn’t about innovating ideas, or about playing very complex parts or virtuosity on your instrument. This is about rocking out; about transferring energy from the band to the audience, be it live or on tape. The big question is: did they succeed in transferring that energy? I’m in doubt here. Let me explain why.

First of all, the production of this (debut) EP is good for this style of music. It’s not to polished, and at the same time not under-produced. All instruments are audible, the vocals, and especially the backing vocals (which are an important part of this type of music) are loud enough in the mix. Those backing vocals deliver the sing-a-long parts that should garner the necessary crowd participation when played live. The song structures are well balanced, which means they’re not too simple, but also not proggy. This EP sounds like a couple of friends having a good time together blasting out a couple of catchy tunes. Sounds good, right?

If you’ve read this much you might wonder why I’m in doubt if this is a good EP. The thing is, I miss the energy transferring part I talked about earlier. I wonder if that’s my fault or the band’s. I do enjoy my garage rock better when it’s played faster and this is just too mid-tempo to my liking. Which makes me wonder if Feral trash is a band you have to enjoy live and are having a hard time transfering that live-energy to tape…

If you are ok with a bit slower garage rock, give this a chance, as all the necessary ingredients are there… For me though, it was nice to have heard this EP a couple of times, but I’m afraid it will get lost in my collection and will not get much playing time anymore.

The EP is streaming here.

Print this page