Imagine a world where the last four or five years of experimental hardcore albums have just been a warm-up. God’s Country? Cute. Soul Glo throwing everything in the kitchen sink? Sure, if you like that kind of thing. Chat Pile telling tales of industrial despair? Admirable. Now, enter Holy Dose, a trio from Los Angeles who, rather than simply nodding to the chaos, look at it and say, “You know what? Let’s not just add more noise; let’s drown it all in a tidal wave of unrelenting noise.” And thus, Don’t Give Everything was born.
Right from the jump, you know you’re in trouble. The album hits like a high-speed crash, all flailing guitars, shrieking synths, and vocals that sound like someone has taken a mallet to your spine. This isn’t music for the faint-hearted. Rather, it’s the soundtrack to someone setting fire to a room and daring you to walk in. Each track feels like it’s actively trying to make you uncomfortable. But here’s the thing: it’s not just noise for the sake of noise. This is chaos with purpose; each scream, each guttural groan, each synth ripple is carefully crafted to unravel the very idea of what music is supposed to do to you.
Lyrically, Don’t Give Everything is a mess, and I mean that in the best way possible. One minute, Holy Dose is pulling you into the cold, industrial depths of existential dread, and the next, they’re screaming at you with a primal fury that can only be described as ‘I’ve had enough of everything.’ It’s like an emotional pendulum that swings between ice-cold detachment and full-on, vein-popping insanity.
Musically, they’re not doing the whole ‘industrial noise meets hardcore’ thing halfway. This isn’t just Show Me the Body with extra glitches. This is Holy Dose taking the chaos of industrial noise and hardcore, throwing it in a blender, and then setting that blender on fire for good measure. The synths twist like malfunctioning machines, guitars shred through the air like jagged shards of metal, and the drums alternate between caveman beatdowns and what sounds like the system crashing from overuse. The end result? A brutal and unforgiving soundscape that feels like it’s actively trying to smash your face into the dirt while somehow making you want to keep listening.
But hold on, here’s the kicker; it’s not all just relentless noise. If you’re listening carefully, there’s a surprising amount of emotional depth buried under all the distortion and madness. It’s like Chat Pile’s existential dread, but with less patience and a lot more feedback. There are moments of raw humanity here, glimpses of tenderness hidden between the screams and the bass drops, where the band gives you a split second to catch your breath, only to rip it away again with the next sonic assault. It’s almost like they’re making you feel the emotional chaos of the world, whether you like it or not.
Look, if you’re into listening to albums that are about as safe as licking a live electrical wire, then Don’t Give Everything is your new favorite record. Holy Dose isn’t trying to make you feel good, and they’re definitely not interested in making your life easier. This is noise with a purpose: to challenge you, to agitate you, and to make you question everything you thought you knew about what hardcore can be. The only question left is: are you ready to take the plunge into this relentless, aggressive, emotionally naked chaos?
Don’t Give Everything by Holy Dose is leading the charge, and you’ll get left behind if you don’t keep up. If this is the future of experimental hardcore, then we’re all in for one hell of a ride.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for publications in the US and former lead writer of Atop The Treehouse. Reviews music, film and TV shows for media aggregators.
