Dopiate breaks the stereotype of heavy metal

Dopiate’s self-titled debut release EP is head-banging friendly in 4-4 time with simple, yet captivating, chord progressions, and with the somewhat sing-song vocals to boot. It’s not something I’ve come across often with most local metal bands. Usually it’s this insane screaming or growling while the bassist, guitarist and drummer race one another, generating a head-aching wall of noise until two minutes is up or the vocalist has passed out due to lack of oxygen to the brain.

With Dopiate, there’s actually structure and melody, fluctuating rhythms and the occasional screaming, though only when absolutely necessary. On the first track, “Breakdown,” they change it up three and a half minutes into the song, proceeding with an instrumental jam that progressively speeds up in the form of a true crescendo before reverting back to the “A” part of the song again, making for an easy to follow circle of a track that really rocks out.

“Chicken,” the second track, definitely cranks things up a notch. The drummer, Ross Henderson, seems to like mixing things up quite a bit and the rest of the band, with Hutch White on bass, Jamie Spurgeon on guitar and Patrick Eblen on guitar )and also sporting the vocals) don’t seem to mind keeping up.

I like the fact that there are two guitars instead of just one, opening up many lead opportunities that the band takes full advantage of. They’re quite in sync with one another, making for a surprisingly fresh and polished sound. Just don’t expect me to be able to extract a quotable verse in just my first listen. With the intensity and tempo of the music they create, any vocalist would be hard-pressed to come across as understood when listened to just once. After a few listens, I’m sure I’ll be citing the lyrics like a wannabe karaoke champion, but in the meantime, you’ll have to give them a listen yourself at www.myspace.com/dopiateband and see what you can come up with.

Josh Cole is a local musician and CD connoisseur. For a possible review of a new release, e-mail Cole at lettersfromthevoid@yahoo.com or at Myspace.com/familiarwalls.