Home Read Albums Of The Week: Dream Nails | Doom Loop

Albums Of The Week: Dream Nails | Doom Loop

I mean, I know I'm probably supposed to take stock, check my privilege and confront my role in the patriarchy while I listen to this, but sorry: I'm just too busy rocking out.

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Almost three years since their debut self-titled release, Dream Nails aren’t changing their route — just broadening their appeal.

In their slick, humourous new album Doom Loop — produced by Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, Amyl and The Sniffers) — the band tackle everything from incel culture to rewriting the available images of trans masculinity. It’s concise, powerful and refreshingly disruptive.

Doom Loop is an exploration of the repeated cycles we find ourselves in,” comments vocalist Ishmael Kirby, “from political injustice and patriarchal systems to the negative spirals of our minds. A doom loop is a crisis that starts to feed on itself. It feels like there is no escape. But there is. This album is a reflection of ourselves, the world we live in, and the one we want to create.”

“Specifically, Doom Loop delves into masculinity in its many forms,” expands drummer Lucy Katz. “The good guy, the lads at school, the narcissistic politician, the incel, the sexual predator, the police officer. It looks into gender-based oppression from childhood; how isolation can breed violence against women and the rhetoric that spawns incels.”

Elaborating on the themes, guitarist Anya Pearson adds: “On the album we also celebrate masculinity by telling stories about butch and trans masculine identities. We show the shared responsibility we have in fighting misogyny. Empathy is hard to find in a divided world, but we seek it out, advocate for it, and ask how far it goes.”