Review by Carl on July 13, 2023.

Honestly, I was quite surprised to encounter this lot here on Metal Archives. To me, they had always been a typical NYHC band whose biggest claim to fame was the fact that they provided future members for acts with more renown like Madball and 25 ta Life. I had to go back and pull this compilation from the shelf again to take a deeper dive into it, and yeah, now I kinda hear it too.

Dmize's style could be described as a cross between the classic NYHC sound such as Breakdown, Judge, Cro Mags and "Just Look Around" era Sick of It All, and hardcore-tinged thrash bands from the same area such as C.I.A., Harter Attack, Cyanide and the slower Nuclear Assault stuff. There's a lot of chugging guitar riffs, streetwise vocal stylings and gang vocals present, and while the music has its uptempo parts, it never goes insanely fast. The bulk of the material goes along at a sturdy midtempo, more relying on mosh-ready parts than it does on velocity, but the definite thrash metal influenced riffing keeps it all interesting throughout. Their metal edge grows more outspoken towards the later material: take a track like "Misery", featuring riffing that would not sound out of place on Slayer's "South of Heaven" or "Seasons in the Abyss" albums, or the late 80's and early 90's output of Suicidal Tendencies. On these tracks the band showcase a style and sound that would not feel out of place between the later (crossover) thrashers like Ironchrist, No Mercy, Killjoy or even early 90's Testament, Laaz Rockit and Exodus.

One small point of criticism I have is that after the first 6 tracks (the first demo) they changed vocalists. Ray O. was out, and his replacement Chiqui took some getting used to for me. First time I heard him, I had the idea that I was listening to a pissed off version of the "Rico Suave" guy. Yeah, as you can probably imagine, it took me a while to shake that image.

Because these are demo recordings from the earliest 90's, the sound is unpolished and a bit on the raw side. Not that it's bad or unlistenable throughout, but the sound is somewhat thin on the earliest recordings, with the percussion sounding kinda flat and placed in the background. I don't think that these recordings were remastered or anything, but were just plopped on disc and shoved out the door.

Don't get me wrong, this is no bad release at all. As a document of early NYHC it is an interesting compilation, with music enjoyable enough to keep those into the style entertained, for sure. This is pretty sturdy stuff throughout, but I do not see this appealing to many outside the NYHC fan circles, to be honest. The music is not fast enough to entice the crossover 'party' thrash crowd, and it certainly is too streetwise to appeal to the other 80's cosplayers out there. Which is a bit of a shame, because the riffs are certainly there, and I can dig this stuff well enough. If you have any affinity for NYHC or even metallic hardcore in general, give this a chance, I'd say.

By the way, that guy from "Rico Suave" is called Gerardo. Just thought you wanted to know.

Rating: 7 out of 10