Released on July 25, 2025, via Dine Alone Records, The Lash finds The Dirty Nil on a path back to their roots… and it has been a long time coming. Looking back, since Master Volume’s 2018 release, the Ontario-based duo has explored more Pop Punk and Alternative Rock sounds with their subsequent two LPs, 2021’s Fuck Art and 2023’s Free Rein to Passions.
Which leads us to the fifth album, The Lash, where The Dirty Nil are at their rawest and most urgent. In a return to the Punk Rock sound that won them 2017’s Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year, the band shed the glitter and glam and stripped things right down to bare, bone-rattling Garage Rock energy.
Vocalist/Guitarist Luke Bentham and Drummer Kyle Fisher set the tone perfectly with an in-your-face opening: “Gallop of the Hounds.” You are immediately slammed with buzzsaw guitars and thundering drums, a shot of adrenaline that forces you off your feet. The last line, “I know you can hear me now,” encapsulates the raw tone of the record. Following it up, “Fail In Time” and “That Don’t Mean It Won’t Sting” continue the impressive vocal work from Bentham. These two tracks serve as less loud hits when compared to the opening cut. Still, they rock, and there is something about a heavy guitar mixed with Fisher’s drumwork. Furthermore, the guitar solo on “That Don’t Mean It Won’t Sting” stands as one of the most memorable moments from the record.
Moving on, “Rock ’n’ Roll Band” keeps the blood pumping, snarling about the music industry. The track sounds like a Nil classic, and the line, “someone else is getting rich, not you,” lands hard, especially in modern times. However, there is more to it than just harsh noise. Track five, “This Is Me Warning Ya,” hits unexpected emotional depth. It is a minimalist song, with fingerpicked guitar and strings behind Bentham’s quiet vocals. It sounds haunted and honest, which is a bold shift from the usual chaos of punk. The sixth track is a fun cut, rooted in one question: “Do You Want Me?” The aptly named song is less than two minutes long, proving that the duo listened to critics’ advice to trim the fat. Bentham even said himself that trimming the fat was the goal when choosing to make the album’s artwork black and white.
Interestingly, the duo initially attempted to use an image of a Vatican-owned bronze relief as the album cover, but were hit with a cease and desist order from the Vatican, one of Bentham’s ‘proudest achievements.’ The group was tired of color, and it fits the album’s stripped-back, harsh aesthetic. That aesthetic is taken to a moodier, more brooding place in “Spider Dream.” Its repeated line, “Things aren’t going the way I thought they were,” lands like an exhausted realization after the assault of earlier tracks. “They Won’t Beat Us” and “Hero Narrative” flip that exhaustion into defiance, both rallying cries built to be shouted back in a sweaty venue, amps rattling under the weight of their hooks.
Finally, the record’s closer, “I Was a Henchman,” caps it all off with grit, swagger, and an earned sneer. In the span of less than half an hour, The Dirty Nil accomplished what they had not been able to do for seven years.
The two words to describe The Lash are: concise and clear. This album is The Dirty Nil cranked up and stripped down at the same time. It is an urgent record and finds Nil unapologetically themselves. Each song is a firestarter on the record that they have been building towards for years now. If you are a fan of Punk or even just honest music-making, be sure not to let this one slip by you, because Cryptic Rock gives The Lash 4 out of 5 stars.
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