Dogma Feeding the Future
Don't adjust your label! Yes, a loud rock band is on RAL, a group of labels that have so far released nothing but rap music. King is a new subsidiary to RAL, and Dogma's debut full length is one of its first releases. The New York based quartet plays ferocious rock-n-roll, led by Phil Allocco's strong, emotionally charged vocals and Randy Dzielack's guitars (he's also credited with "devices" but what those are is unclear). Allocco and bassist Sean Carmody have been friends since high school and they picked up the other tow through mutual friends and an ad in New York's weekly the Village Voice. Although the band is bound to be lumped in with anything that's got an edge, Dogma is slightly to the left of most metal bands, seeming to rejoice in the incongruities of Allocco's passionate vocals and the sturdy grind of the music. The song's lyrics, whcih are sung by Allocco deal with internal turmoil and mistrustful relationships: "Cancer" associates betrayal with the deadly disease ("I smelled the cancer through the frienldy act you tried"), "Anyone at All" is a simple cry for help ("I am suicidal/I am always wrong/I am juvenile"), "Too Many People" deals with lothargic alienation ("Too many people are on the street so I just kept on walking and stared at my feet"). In an era where there aren't so many genres and sub-genres, Dogma would simply be tagged rock and roll.
By Megan Frampton