When The Dirty Nil first convened in Toronto’s Union Studios earlier this year to record the follow-up to their 2018 Juno Award-nominated crusher, Master Volume, the coronavirus had just begun its North American tour and talk of border closures started creeping into the headlines. Suddenly, what was supposed to be a leisurely recording process became a tense, do-or-die mission, as producer John Goodmanson was forced to hightail it back home to Seattle. Left with the decision of whether or not to continue the record, the band opted to finish remotely.
The result is the beautifully blasphemous Fuck Art, a statement of confidence and defiance from a group that’s now three albums into the game—i.e., the point where ambitious rock bands are supposed to call in the orchestra, experiment with electronics, and try to make their Ok Computer. The Dirty Nil, by contrast, have opted to perfect the formula that, over the past decade, has landed them on stages with everyone from Against Me! to The Who. Fuck Art melts down all of their favourite ingredients—classic-rock heroism, pop-punk horsepower, ‘80s indie scrappiness, ‘90s alterna-crunch, speed-metal adrenaline—into a radiant, chromatic solution they can then mould and harden into unpredictable shapes.