DRAMATIST - WASTING WORDS - DEVILDUCK

As if there weren't enough drama in this world already, the quintet DRAMATIST is set to add their own chapter to the drama and take you along for the ride.

DRAMATIST blows us away with their debut album Wasting Words and lives up to their name 100%, because dramaturgy is lived here with great enthusiasm, both lyrically and musically. The fact that they also have a political edge is particularly evident in their first single, “Fat White Families,” and the English band of almost the same name was certainly not known for being light fare in terms of music and lyrics either. 

From DevilDuck's point of view, DRAMATIST also broke one or two label rules, such as the fact that we like to have 10 songs on our albums, but the 8 songs are so coherent and uncompromising that it would have been a sacrilege not to release this album exactly as it is. The nearly 40 minutes are a positive slap in the face and punch in the gut, and after the first listen, my experiment leaves me with completely different emotions. One listener may want to hear the album again and again, while another may need some time to digest what they've heard, let it sink in, or classify it in some way. — perhaps it's even a good thing that we know virtually nothing about DRAMATIST, and that this is deliberate, because although they don't hide their origins or socialization, they don't want to shout it from the rooftops, but simply let the work speak for itself.

The opener “Black Hole” plunges you right into the DRAMATIST cosmos, celebrating the night before the first single strikes melodically and even drifts into German for a tiny moment. Then comes the thoroughly satisfying “Disappointed,” which roars at us, “waiting for nothing is over now, hating for nothing is over now,” and it's truly magnificent! “The League” demands women's rights, which should be a given, and refuses to deny its anger: “her only goal is to collapse the system now.”

This brutal world is also addressed in Glasgow Nights, but despite all their differences, the eight songs come across as a unified whole that rarely seems sweet or light, but then offers a welcome quasi-break with the sing-along anthem Unknown Hero, before Loathing unleashes its own driving intensity that lives up to the band's name. The concluding 6.5-minute “Go” then provides a longer farewell (“somebody tell me what to do”), which once again throws all of DRAMATIST's attributes into the song bowl and builds up in the most wonderful way, before the aforementioned compulsion sets in to listen to the album again and again or to pause to process what you've heard, because this conscious reflection can be just as intense as the listening experience and the trip on Wasting Words, DRAMATIST's debut album, which should be taken very seriously.