For their debut on Fat Wreck Chords, The Dirty Nil have released this cool two—song EP. Though both songs are unmistakably melodic punk rock, you can definitely hear some garage rock influences in both of them as well.

The track on the A—side, entitled "Cinnamon," starts out sounding like a fairly standard power—chord driven song for about a verse, but then the song quickly takes a different turn during the second verse when the guitar gets very heavily distorted and the lead singer's voice changes into this kind of high—pitched growling tone. One might think that if he were to sing any higher his throat might start bleeding. The closest comparison to this high—pitched growl that comes to mind is Brendan Kelly's angrier vocals in Oh! Calcutta! For the guitar solo The Dirty Nil did something very interesting. The majority of it is the guitarist hitting one chord and then he bends one note on the higher strings and then continues this pattern with the next chord and so on. This progression, with the use of some great dissonance, builds up a lot of tension in the song. The lyrics in this song are also entertaining because they are filled with apathy: "You can be pissed off if you want to."

"Guided by Vices" is the title of the B—side track and it starts out kind of humorously. The drummer taps his drums sticks to count off the song, but in an extremely fast way even though the song itself is at a much slower tempo. This lead singer in this song too, sings with that high—pitched growl. And as opposed to the "Cinnamon," which is pretty much power chord—dominated, "Guided by Vices" has more of a distinguishable main guitar riff. The lyrics in "Guided by Vices" don't have any apathy them at all, in fact they are much more caring, which makes for an interesting contrast with ""Cinnamon:" "When's it just gonna be you and I for a change?"


If you are looking to get into The Dirty Nil, this 7—inch is a good place to start, but then be sure to make your way back to their earlier, self—released material.