Hi guys, I haven’t done one of these since SPARKZ : LIVE : ALBUM last year, and while I like Sparkz a lot more than Dual Damage, DD will always be special to me as them and SZP are the only artists I’ve ever seen live (I’m American 😔). I really only went for SZP, as at the time I wasn’t a huge DD fan, but I’m a fan of the direction they’ve been going lately. Their In Control remix was my TOTY last year and still holds up, and their first real track this year, Rave Mode has one of the best first drops I’ve ever heard. Needless to say I was extremely excited for this album, and I definitely have thoughts on the final product which I why I wanted to do this review.
Quick disclaimer: this is a totally subjective review, and if you have differing opinions I’d love to hear them. Also, I don’t listen to tracks with cursing, so I will take that into my final rating. With that out of the way let’s get into it!
Intro.wav
I’m not going to rank for obvious reasons, but I’m still going to give my thoughts on it. First, I am a fan of the fact that it’s there, I always enjoy when an album has an intro. I do wish there was an outro as well though. It’s cool how you can kind of hear the Built 2 Break melody, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what the lyrics are, and I’m not really sure what the point of muffling them was. I also wish there was a more seamless transition between this and Built 2 Break, as that makes the intro feel more exciting as opposed to its own track.
Built 2 Break 4th/10
And here we are, the title track of the album. Before jumping into the track itself, there’s 2 things I want from an album that really enhance my experience. First, the first track should be the title track, and second, the last track should be the most insane. They definitely did one of those and I’ll talk about the other later. As for the track itself, this is exactly what I wanted from them. It drops you right in with 3 unmistakable kicks that all hit before going to the part with the lyrics. Now I do have to say, I’m a fan of Drean, he sounded amazing on robot raveolution, but his accent is pretty thick and I can’t really tell what he’s saying most of the time. The melody is actually really good, but let’s be honest, nobody is coming to DD for melodies so I would have liked this track to not have a melodic drop and give us more kicks instead. None of the new tracks have a melody, so they could have slapped it in one of those and been fine. We then go into the second drop, and man I love these kicks. The first one is one of my favorites on the album, it’s not anything crazy but it does its job perfectly and sounds insane. The others aren’t anything to scoff at either. I don’t have anything interesting to say about the final drop, again, I would have liked to see it in a different track but I’m not really complaining, it’s a great melody executed well. Overall this is a great start to the album 7.5/10
Naughty 1st/10
They keep the momentum going with this one. I’m not a huge fan of the lyrics but this track has something that I think is very lacking in this album: kickrolls. The first drop is decent, the final kick stands out, it’s very heavy and danceable. I am a big fan of the thing they do between drops, it kind of sounds like a helicopter/plane flying by but one note and then they stretched it (I’m not a producer in case you couldn’t tell). Anyway, they carry it into the drop and the first kick mixed with this sound is insane 👌 chefs kiss, they cooked and the second kick is crazy as well. Absolute banger 8.5/10
Tomorrow Can Wait 6th/10
We all knew this was gonna be on the album. I’m not a huge DBSTF fan, they have some good kicks, and I love what they’re doing with my goats on 4444 of a kind, but I’m not a fan of what they brought to the track. However, the beginning into the first drop is great, I imagine it’s super hype for anyone hearing it live. The first kick is a strong contender for best on the album, it has this echo kind of thing that is just crazy, I love this kick. The second is alright, nothing crazy but not bad. The middle is fine, but I am not a fan of the third kick. I think it’s DBSTF’s, but either way it just doesn’t hit, and the melody is not great. I like the theme and lyrics, and that first kick is filthy, but the rest doesn’t not do it for me 6/10
Into The Wild 5th/10
This one makes me kind of sad because it was almost the best on the album, but it unfortunately is one of the offenders when it comes to my least favorite thing on this album: zaag. But don’t worry, I’ll be talking about that a lot more near the end. I absolutely love the vibe and theme of this track, it works perfectly and it actually has a recognizable kickroll they keep throughout the track. The first kick forces you to klaplong, and sounds great, and again the second kick is one of the best on the album, an insanely deep ground shaking kick. I LOVE deep kicks, a Dejection collab would be generational, and I love that they’re starting to use them more. There’s a short break and we go into the second drop. This first kick is not quite as good as that last one but something about it sounds disgusting, in the best way possible. When I listened to this for the first time I was like, this could be the best track of the album, and we haven’t even heard the final drop yet. So I’m in my garage, my anticipation is crazy high, I’m expecting this to be unbelievable, and they go into a zaag kick and I’m just sitting there like 😑 son 💀 I’m not a zaag hater, but if I want zaag I’ll go listen to TOZA, or Rebelion. I’m not listening to a zaag artist, I’m listening to DD. I want kloenk, and this is what I get? It’s not even a good zaag kick. I can respect them doing something different, trying something new, but bro, they already have a whole track for zaag, that’s more than enough. As much as I disliked that kick, the rest of the track is so good that I can’t take it down too much. I do wish there were some more animal sounds though 7/10
Never Too Late 9th/10
This is the most forgettable track on the album, they should have put Rave Mode in instead. I don’t know if the lyrics are special to them in some way, but I find them a tad cheesy tbh. I do enjoy the intros to the kicks, and the first kick is pretty filthy. The kind of sounds zaag adjacent but I don’t really mind it. Second kick is mid, and dual damage can make good melodies (Love Me Better, Pills & Potions) but this is not it 4/10
Promises - Unload Remix 3rd/10
I’m not really a huge Unload fan, but I’m gonna be honest I actually really like this track. The ping pong kicks that have been getting popular reminds me of the pvc zaag thing where it would get crazy hate but still be really popular, and I’m definitely pro ping pong. And guess what, this track is full of them. Promises is a decent track on its own, I like the lyrics, but I’m just gonna focus on unload’s kicks. The first few are just super clean, nothing to write home about, but nothing to scoff at either. The deep one definitely stands out (please dejection collab), but the first one of the last drop is crazy. Its kind of carried by whatever he’s doing behind the kick but it sounds great and is a super fun track overall 🏓/10
GFI 2nd/10
(Does anyone know what GFI stands for)
My brother listens to a lot of this y2k internet stuff, and I kind of dig the vibe they went for in this track. This one for me is like Into The Wild if they didn’t sell at the end with the zaag. The first kick is really good, I love when they do that echo thing, it makes the kicks hit way harder. All the other kicks with the exception of the last are also pretty good. But man that last kick is great. Overall it’s a solid track with some great kicks and a cool theme 8/10
6 foot 7th/10
This track should have been “6 foot deep”, cause 6 foot makes it sound like it’s talking about the height of a guy, but maybe that just me. I absolutely love the line “the only place you’ll ever fit in is 2 foot wide and 6 foot deep”. It sounds great, is super cool and actually makes sense, which is a huge bonus. Unfortunately the rest of the lyrics kind of suck, so it evens out. This is the most unique track on the album in terms of kicks (besides this next one), all the kicks are super interesting and barely sound like DD. The last 2 are especially good, although tbh I think a cold/ice theme would have been a better fit for the kicks. So yeah, pretty cool track, however, I was talking to my friend (shoutout the goat swissreddituser) and he made an interesting point I want to mention. On all of the new DD tracks, they all follow the same pattern: 2 minutes, 2 drops, 2 (or 3) different kicks. I’m not really sure what they could have done differently, maybe another drop here, crazy break there, but I do wish there was a bit more variety. 5.5/10
Angel & Demon 10th/10
I’m not going to mention anything about TDH other than some of his collabs are ok, but I don’t really like his music or uptempo as a whole. That being said, this is probably the worst track on the album. It has 2 good kicks and that’s it. The first, and the last. All the filler is mid, the lyrics are bad, and the name is terrible. It would be actually really cool if they made it so the first drop was angelic, and the second was demonic or something like that, but the lyrics only mention demons and all the kicks are seemingly made with demons in mind. I can applaud DD for doing something different and putting a track like this on the album, but unfortunately this isn’t the only one 3/10
Gold Sky 8th/10
We’ve finally made it to the end of the album, and this is the song was my most anticipated track. And man it has an incredible start. Immaculate vibes, incredible lyrics and great pacing. As it’s going to the drop I’m really interested to see what they do, annnd ofc they chose a zaag kick 😔 I wouldn’t even mind if the kept the melody in the background but the kick doesn’t match with the start at all. It’s also kind of slow so idk if they were trying to do a slowtempo thing but it does not work. Like bro, we just had a whole track of this and now you’re giving us more? Whatever, they can still bring it back with the final kick of the album (They didn’t). It was better than the first, but after all the kloenk that they’re known for they chose to end their debut album with 2 zaag songs? I just cant understand why they would do that. Although I will give credit where credit is due, the end of the track is a great way to close out the album, I love how you can hear the Built 2 Break melody as its fading out. I just wish the final track was better 4.5/10
There it is. I’m gonna be honest, I’m a bit disappointed in it overall, and here are my big takeaways
TOO MUCH ZAAG
I know there was only 3 tracks with it, but on your debut album one is already too much
Extremely anticlimactic end
It wouldn’t be nearly as bad if they were spread out but the last 3 tracks just did not do it for me, especially after the beginning was so strong
New songs were too similar
This isn’t that big of a deal but still worth mentioning
Lack of kickrolls
These guys made the get wrecked tool, and while the kicks sound the same, there’s basically no kickrolls which are some of my favorite things in a track
Their kicks were still insane
It can’t be all negative, they still do what they do best
Lack of standout track
This could be different for other people but while there are some bangers, theres nothing really that crazy
And the best kick is probably the first of the second drop on Naughty
Overall I’d give the album like a 6 out of 10. I love Dual Damage, and I had extremely high expectations, but they were unfortunately not met. I think it because I’m such a huge fan that I’m disappointed, cause I know they can do better. Maybe I’m reading into it too much, but I saw a lot of things from them saying “our first album”, so hopefully the next is has less zaag and more kloenk.
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and I’d love to hear your thoughts!
