Dungeon Vision. Earth Tongue

The thing with duo bands is, that they are, well, a duo. The result is they, at least alternative rock duos, do sound somewhat the same. The blueprint by far most people will think of is of course The White Stripes. Ever since the duo broke in the early 00s, they are the mall for all others following and have the most famous alternative rock duo anthem of all, 'Seven Nation Army'. Even football stadiums can not escape the tune, although the Dutch version is so non-woke a blog like this cannot repeat it.

Enter Earth Tongue from New Zealand but currently based in Berlin. The band made it here for the first time in June 2024 with its album 'Great Hunting'. I am sure that everything I wrote there can be repeated here. Just change a few titles and no one would notice.

It would be selling Gussie Larkin, guitar, vocals and Ezra Simons, drums and vocals short. On Dungeon Vision the duo once again is oozing with energy. The album is absolutely charged. Riffs fly around as if no one had invented them before this album. Of course it all sounds dirty, while the rhythm feels like wading through molten tar, but is simply great.

You will find that Earth Tongue even takes a breather. An acoustic guitar comes in, the fuzz is gone. There is a bass and something like a Mellotron. Gussie Larkin takes a swipe at singing without turning on the fog horn quality she has in her voice.

After this point of reflection things go crazy once again. The fuzz pedal is pushed in deeply and it's even possible to make the sound even dirtier in the choruses. I'll be honest. When I listened to the album for the first time, I thought, 'okay, been here, done that'. After I put on the album once again there was no holding back and it went on repeat. Yes, Dungeon Vision is not a giant step forward from 'Great Hunting', but such a pleasant continuation that I can't resist it. Last year it was Italian duo The Devils with its eponymous album, in 2026 it's Dungeon Vision that is the alternative rock duo standard bearer.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order Dungeon Vision here:

https://earthtongue.bandcamp.com/album/dungeon-vision