dog days

Instrumental stoner-rock trio Dog Days are a relatively unknown commodity outside Switzerland's small, fragmented music market. However, with the power of the eight tracks from this debut album, Heat, it's difficult to imagine them remaining that way for long.

The band's impressively heavy sound was recorded live at Studio De La Fonderi in their native Friborg in two five day sessions. The tattoo-clad rockers' ballsy detuned guitar playing, full-throttle drumming, and psychedelic dabbling’s channels the likes of Kyuss, Sleep, and Karma To Burn. Meanwhile, the album pays homage to the undeniable influence that Led Zeppelin had on the riff-led stoner rock sound. The cut 'Kyi Apso' even leads into the riff from 'Black Dog' for a moment, which substantiates how integral Jimmy Page was - alongside Lead Hound - to the birth of stoner rock as a sub-genre, and how much of a personal influence they are on Dog Days' sublime guitar riffing skills.
The catchiest display of axe work is the second track, 'Shiba', and it comes as no surprise that it's the one they've made a video so far. It's easy to imagine John Garcia of Kyuss laying over a fantastic vocal take over this. However, being solely instrumental works for this band. It holds a refreshing middle finger up to convention and they've executed exactly what they want to do for the love of what they do, and nothing more.

Of their key influences, West Virginia's Karma To Burn have the closest parallels in this regard. It was only because they were forced to hire a singer for their debut album by their label that they didn't release an instrumental album as a debut. In contrast, Dog Days have been able to stick to their guns from the off.

The other trait - beyond not having a vocalist for commercial purposes - that gives this band rock n' roll credentials is that Vinvent Yerly (guitar) taught his bassist Marie Riley from scratch. Riley already knew the double bass, but Yerly taught her electric bass and built her a custom P-Bas. The album's immaculately tight, heavy playing also owes a lot to the hours spent developing a close musical bond together. 'We're almost like siblings,' she states in the interview. The chemistry certainly comes across on the album.

Whilst Heat demonstrates this tight hard playing, it's the track, 'Komondor', that shows the aforementioned psychedelic influences the most prominently. The tempo is reigned in for a more opiated section, before building by the end. This is heavy music at its most melodic, experimental, and enjoyable. Kyuss would be proud. - Drowned in Sound

Good God, 2016 has got off to a rip roaring start. In the first two months alone I've stumbled upon at least five albums or EP's that would have easily made their way into my best of 2015. So lets not beat around the bush, lets crack on with the first of my best of this year so far...
Dog Days - mixed gender instrumental stoner rock awesomeness from Switzerland. Yup, you read that right. I'm not sure about Gabe, but I'm pretty confident that I've not had anything from there before. But hell, if this is what they can do then I'm seriously considering moving. This album totally and utterly slays. It's that simple. Even if you're not entirely sold on the whole instrumental stoner rock angle (pfft, do you not own any Karma To Burn!?) there's still so much to love about Heat. Right from the opening fuzz filled bars of Saluki you get the immediate sense of where this album is heading, and it doesn't for a single second disappoint. Mixing high octane, insanely satisfying riffs with an equal measure of atmospheric production and breakdowns is a touch of genius. Where most solely instrumental albums often play out like a jam session, Heat feels entirely tight and focused. In fact, it spends a lot of time feeling more and more like an incredible film score than your average stoner rock album. Whats more, this works, and bloody brilliantly too. Despite it's lack of vocal content, its entirely captivating from beginning to end. This is in no small part down to Vincent's master riffmanship. I realise I totally just made that term up, but I wholeheartedly stand by it. Just listen to the opening minute of Lancashire Heeler and you'll see exactly what I mean. Not to take away from the rest of the trio though! Marie's bass lines rattle your vertebrae and theres not a single track where you won't eventually find yourself air drumming along with Julien, especially track 2, Shiba.
If you like your stoner rock tight, relentless, with a little hint of punk prowess and a sweet nod to Led Zeppelin, then you have absolutely no excuse to go and get this album. And for all you tight bastards out there, you can even pay what you want!

If any of you managed to recently catch them locally supporting Cancer Bat's, then I both hate and envy you in equal measure. I'm so gutted that I can't get down to Desert Fest this year as I'd give a nut to catch this lot live!
~ Jay - The Burning Beard

In the grand tradition of Karma to Burn, QotSA, and taking the re-bar solidness of the Swiss rock/metal scene (think everything from Celtic Frost, Bloodstar and the Young Gods to Knut, Zatokrev and most of the Ocean) as irreverent artistic influence, comes instrumental/power/stoner trio, Dog Days. Their debut record, Heat is set for release in almost exactly a month's time and we liked what we heard of the advance promos so much that we wanted to share some of the band's energetic, sun-and-tumbleweed kissed rock with ye denizens of the Deciblog. But first, a little bit of an introduction to the band courtesy of bassist Marie Riley:

"Vincent [Yerly, guitar] and I met in 2014 when I was playing in a band called Jim The Barber. He was playing the guitar and we instantly matched and became more than friends, we are like siblings. At that point, I was playing the double bass but always had the intention to play the bass guitar in a band that would be a bit heavier than what I was used to do. Vincent had played the bass and the guitar in several bands for more than twenty years now and he really wanted to create his own project. So, I bought my first electric bass and he taught me for hours and hours. Then, when he decided I was ready, he built me a custom P-Bass. I love the sparkles so it is covered with blue ones, but most of all, that bass has the precise sound we were looking for.
"We found a drummer [Julien Vonlanthen] and started to work, create and write a kind of music that wasn't concerned with singing. First, because we wanted to be a power trio as it is our favourite format, and also because we wanted our music to be as radical as it could be. When you play in an instrumental band, the difficulty is to catch the audience and make them forget the classic layout of a guy asking them how they’re doing tonight. The guitar has to lead the band but not in a classic way. And then the bass has to be heavy enough to make your stomach ache. We worked hard to create that sound and now we can admit that we are satisfied even if the pursuit of our ideal sound remains one of our main goal.

"When we got into the studio to record Heat, we needed a trustful person to be able to reproduce exactly what we had in mind. Sacha Ruffieux did the recording and the mixing and then we sent our songs to another friend in Tokyo and he did the mastering. Aobaprod Studio is our secret weapon. Jacques, the engineer, usually works with electronic music and we knew he would go beyond the rules. He actually doesn’t care about how a stoner instrumental album should sound like and we loved that. The result is exactly what we imagined and we are now very proud to present it. For the next few months, we would like to travel the world to prove the Swiss rock scene not only exists but is ready to kick your ass, too."

And there you have it. And here you have a track from Heat called "Saluki." - Decibel Magazine