Perhaps the only artist on my radar more prolific than Dundas, ON’s The Dirty Nil is Wet Eyes.  It seems my inbox is regularly tapped with news of a new release (always vinyl, baby) along with some of the best press release material known to the music blogger world.

The latest venture:  a split 7″ release with brothers-in-rock Northern Primitive.  It’s readily apparent from the wild “is it the story bit of a porn or bad karaoke?” theme of their video for “Little Metal Baby Fist” that recording with The Dirty Nil is a raucous affair, but what of the results?

The Dirty Nil‘s “Zombie Eyed” opens with the sort of delicious heavy riff early Nirvana made famous and continues into a distortion-laced, blow-the-speakers-out riff fest that prowls around the sonic space like a corpse craving brains.  Of all the band’s tracks I’ve heard, I have to say this one might just drop-kick “Fuckin’ Up Young” out of top slot.  The playing’s as tight as you’d want organic booze-soaked garage rock to be, and the angst is dripping off the lyrics.  If, like me, you listen to new Billy Talent thinking, “What the fuck happened to the guys who wrote ‘The Ex’?” abandon them post-haste and check out The Dirty Nil.

Flipping the virtual vinyl over, I get my first taste of Northern Primitive via their track “Positive Bondar”.  In sharp contrast to Side A, we open with the soundtrack for a zombie invasion of the Karate Kid’s stomping grounds.  Again, we’re drenched in distortion, and while I think I’m digging the eerie vibe the band was aiming for, the volume levels irk my ears.  I want it louder on the core recording because frankly, my laptop computers are dying from my constant abuse.  Lyrically, the macabre haunts between the melancholy lines and the result is rather poetic (in a good way) as the track builds and swells.  Very nice.

A solid release, to be sure, but hey, don’t take my word for it:  both tracks are free until February 8th, 2013.