25. March 2025
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The Dogs – El Verdugo

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

The Dogs - El Verdugo

The Dogs - El Verdugo
4.4

Rating

 4.4/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Nice Norwegian rock album
  • Very versatile songs

Calling your band The Dogs feels to be rather popular. I found a US act and a former British one, both quite successful. The band, which releases a new album on 4th March 2022, however, is from Norway. El Verdugo, which was been released on 4th March 2022, is already their tenth album.

 

The Dogs – About The Artists

The Dogs have been founded right in Oslo in 2011. Nowadays, they act as a sextet, lead by signer Kristopher Schau (Max Cargo), who is a famous Norwegian TV host. His bandmates are Mads Martinsen (guitar), Roar Nilsen (bass), Stefan Höglin (keyboard), Henrik Odde Gustavson (drums) and percussionist Kenneth Simonsen. They relased their debut album in 2012 already. Their last five releases were Top 30 albums in Norway.

 

The Dogs – El Verdugo – Track by Track

The ten track album lasts 38 minutes.

1. Melt

Melt is opening the album in a promising way. 3:42 minutes with cool, powerful indie-rock. A straight-forward sound, which even sometimes reminds me of folk rock. Nice.

2. Sommelier of Lies

A Sommelier without wine is the theme of the second track. A bit of Brit rock. Again, the Nordics have a straight sound with a quickly marching rhyhm. Nice guitar solo as well.

3. Where the Man Beast Crawls

After band went for a striaght-forward beginning, Where the Man Beast Crawls is taking time for an intro to strengthen the creepy atmosphere of the song. The guitars feel to be a bit harder and darker than in the songs before – the vocal collaboration increases the desire to sing along this track with the band.

4. Doomsday Prepper

Lovely indie-sound from the very beginning of the song. The punk flavor makes it sound like the first smash hit of a really great teenage band. A bit of nasty and naugty, but straught and you just have to love it.

5. Scars Are Just Memory

The keyboard takes a key melodic line in Scars Are Just Memory. Again, the collaboration of lead and backing vocals is really nice. The track is a bit softer, but still a good rocker.

6. The Story of Who I Used to Be

The sixth song of the album is somewhat the coolest one to me. It has a very cool melody line working towards the key line The Story of Who I Used To Be. Great composing.

7. Fuck It, Let’s Go

Are you looking for a concert smasher with a touch of punk and a lot of potential to shout along with the band? Here we go, this seventh one has all ingredients to be a lot of fun. Must-listen… Best with the guys being live on stage.

8. Whispered Apologies

Can these rockers from Norway really whisper apologies? At least, the song is opening rather slow with strong groove, almost blues rock style with organ-alike sounds on the melodic side. And I feel, the song is really a whisper compared to the sound of the other tracks on the album. Even if there is a bit of screaming as well.

9. Sanity Is History

Sanity Is History almost feels a bit pop-alike, due to its very melodic and present chorus. Really nice arrangements with nice riffs and a bit of that creepy sound The Dog presented before before.

10. And Pain Said Nothing

The final 4:36 minutes of the album start rather slow – but with some three minutes left, the song suddenly turns into a sound, which could already be a soft death metal intro. Nice transition. Good quality rock to close off El Verdugo,

 

The Dogs – El Verdugo – Spotify

Here is El Verdugo on Spotify:

 

The Dogs – El Verdugo – My View

Wow, that was fun. The Norwegians make use of their wide arrangement. Their 2022 release is a very entertaining album with very differently sounding songs and a lot of potential to have a good time. Definitely a Top Pick! to me.

 

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