I have absolutely no idea why it has taken me so long to review this album. I bought a while ago, overplayed it, got ‘Turf Wars’, fell in love with the band again and only recently went back to this record and started getting into it again. This Canadian mob are coming to the UK very soon and so there’s no better time to get into them. They do the Set Your Goals thing very, very well indeed. Infact you could even argue they do the pop-core genre better than SYG.
There’s an element of honesty with Daggermouth that you don’t get on first listen. On first listen you get RIFFS. Fuck me there are some riffs on this record. ‘I Dance To Trance…’ may rip off a very well know guitar lick, but it sounds fantastic beefed up. ‘Vegas Chaffe, Brutha I got it too’ has a fucking brilliant beatdown and the drums are faultless too. And although there’s a delicious 90s vibe to some of the song titles (‘Wrestlemania 5: Hulk Hogan vs. Macho Man…Winner Gets Miss Elizabeth’s Love’ anyone?) the band can get serious and deep when they need to. ‘Sing it Again, Rookie Biatch!’ touches on loss and personal family issues and it’s a trait the band actually follow up even more on ‘Turf Wars’.
The world needs more bands like Daggermouth. As they sing on the intro, ‘there ain’t no party like a Daggermouth party’ – pretty to get down.