Death Ridge Boys - (Don’t Let Them) Divide Us

Black Water

 

Release-wise 2019 has been a busy year for Portland’s Death Ridge Boys! Not only did the band, with (ex-)members of Criminal Damage, Pressing On, PMS 84 and much... much more, release a split 7” with Dutch outfit Savage Beat, the Boys from Oregon also released two singles on their own - “Fooled Again”, which I recently reviewed and “(Don’t Let Them) Divide Us”, their most recent of the three and that I am about to review right now!

 

Released by Black Water, who also released the superb debut 12” “Right Side Of History”, Death Ridge Boys’ latest 45 contains another two new, and I assume exclusively recorded for this release, tracks - and both instantly became my favorite Death Ridge Boys material to date. Tough, as every release has been more than solid so far, but they managed to do so nonetheless!

 

But with two new tracks, this 7” definitely tastes like even more. The more bovver rockin’ title-track “(Don’t Let Them) Divide Us” is a ferocious stomper with fantastic riffage and a big chorus, while the flipside with the faster paced “Working” is pure rock ‘n’ roll mayhem from start to finish - I love it! And I bet a lot of you who are into anything from Suede Razors to the aforementioned Savage Beat will do as well.

 

So musically this single is top notch, but unfortunately the ‘artwork’ and layout isn’t really appealing - to say the least. Luckily the copies on clear vinyl (of which 100 were made) receive an additional, screen printed cover (though the cover itself is hand numbered to a total of 113 copies) with Death Ridge Boys’ logo to make up for it. And it does, it looks nice and you definitely want one of those. But once they’re gone, no fear - you still get a slab with killer tunes in the end!