One-man alt. rock/grunge/indie outfit Empire of Gold, headed by Portland musician, Michael Jack Dole, has been on our radar for years.
But it was his recent 13-track, one-hour long album, The Devil Is In The Details, that really got our blood pumping.
Fuzzy guitars and drums, such as on the album opener, “Lying Through The Cracks of Your Teeth,” dominate the grungy record from start to finish, featuring dark, moody tracks arranged in interesting cross-genre mixes and overlaps, melodies and melancholy.
The hour-long gritty recording never tires. In an age when 13-track albums are a ballsy move. The vast majority of the tracks, less a couple, do not disappoint. Dole possesses an acute dark rock sensibility informed by his past and his musical influences and tastes.
Following the simmering starter track is the slow-burning dark rocker, “Dust & Bones,” a cathartic reveal of deep emotional memories set ablaze in an orange glow of sonic cider and smoke.
Dole also DIY-filmed an official music video for the track. “I love the idea of this video having a dark, gloomy look with people wearing masks,” he says. “I didn’t want any faces shown at all.”
“Instead, I wanted images of churches and any religion tied into it as it depicts a person struggling to see any meaning in life – as if all we are is dust and bones,” Dole says.
“I wanted to incorporate ‘creepy’ worldly themes,” he insists.
When the third track, the inviting grunge-pop number, “Independence Day,” rolls around, it sets a different tenor and mood for a bit.
While the first two tracks have a life, and allure, all of their own, “Independence Day” is one of the more melodic and accessible numbers on the L.P. The screeching guitars and Dole’s emotive vocals fit nicely.
The ending of the song flows wonderfully and right into the firey, buzz-friendly, “Girl Like You,” that hits a wall of distorted guitars that is one of the best such walls we heard in 2019.
Following that first four-set of songs to open up the album is the mid-point of the L.P. and a string of melancholic, shadowy, gritty tracks marked with Dole’s buzzsaw guitars; tragic lyrics and versatile vocals, and well-arranged percussions.
These include songs like the guitar-layered slow-burner, “Dirty Minds”; the atmospheric mellow haze of the instrumental, “Retrograde,” and the original grungy biscuit, “Sitting On A Shelf.”
In the latter half of the album, the track, “Drunk & Alone,” blazes away precariously and at a smashed-face pace; just what you would expect from the title. It also sounds similar to “Dust & Bones” from earlier in the recording. However, we can’t help but wonder how terrific this track would have been if it had been made into a fast-moving rocker.
The thoughtful and heavily melodic, “These Thoughts I Have,” is yet another standout song and straddles the regions of alt rock and indie. EOG’s music has never been easy to pin to one genre. That’s a good thing. The song also has one of the best vibes, and guitar solos, on the L.P.
The Devil Is In The Details closes with “Words I Sing,” a sad, spacious track, and the most stripped-down, demo-sounding, guy-and-his-guitar recording on the album.
Dole had been in a number of bands over the years from San Diego to Chicago, and Los Angeles to Portland. Many years before all of that, he grew up in Tecate, Mexico until he was eight years old when he moved back to the United States.
Dole describes his childhood as “nomadic.” His lyrics, informed by his experiences as a child and young man are brutally blunt and gristly enveloped in musical expressions of angst and grind.
Altogether, the L.P. is an impressive foray into Dole’s emotional struggles, but more importantly, into his sonic expressions, woven together by a lo-fi style of grunge, alt. rock and punk elements. It’s definitely not your ordinary DIY recording (in a good way). So many albums are standard fare and boring. This one is not.
The album was recorded in Dole’s home studio using Logic Pro X and a lunchbox of pre-amps. Mixing was taken on by Portland engineer Kevin Carafa and later sent to Dirk Steyer of ACSY Sound in Germany for mastering.
Dole’s musical influences include Nirvana, Slipnot, Highly Suspect and Green Day. He was recently accepted to the prestigious Berklee School of Music.
Empire of Gold, he says, is “a concept playing with the thoughts, theories, and fears of human mortality. It plays back and forth with theology and atheist views about our dreams, hopes and eventual reincarnation into heaven.”