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Upon hearing the phrase ‘old ways, new language’ - the aptly titled new EP from Indianapolis’ D.R.L.N. - a flood of directions come forth in the head in which this phrase can be applicable to life in the United States in 2026. It overwhelms you, slicing your ability to cohesively form a presentable roadmap of explanation into tiny pieces, left to frantically pick them up & double check if you’ve gathered them all back together.
D.R.L.N. has been providing listeners a myriad of those directions in a cohesive manner for over eight years now. The continued advancement of politically charged lyricism & unpinnable sonic exploration through the course of their time together has cemented them as one of Indianapolis’ greatest musical treasures. With the release of ‘Old Ways, New Language,’ they take these advancements & put a shiny stamp of arrival on their discography.
On OWNL, there is a sense of patience that has been seen only in growing pieces in previous projects. There’s more room to breathe & let what vocalist Maxwell Denari says dwell with you - & what results is their most experimental & refined vocal performances yet. The band plays with a fresh view of spacing & cadence that allows songs to cut deeper & create new spaces for them to strike with their well-known cathartic breakdowns. This is especially heard through drummer Matt Sabatowski’s work. Songs such as ‘New Space In Time’ & ‘Acting,’ the group rides behind his crystal clear technique. OWNL is also more conceptually direct without succumbing to taking serious matters too seriously. The cover art - a double exposure film photograph taken by Denari - is an act of permission to this directness. On it, two symbols of longstanding imperialism, fear-mongering, class war & broken promises to its working class. It’s no secret that, on OWNL, anguish & upheaval of the institutions that forge such feelings & experiences in day-to-day life are what’s required to begin again.
On ‘Gran Torino,’ we get a glimpse of idealized solidarity that has been festering in said institutional frustration. ‘Bleed for me/I bleed for you/We see the truth/blatantly,’ Denari delivers with conviction. It prods at a unifying pride that’s gone missing in our working class, where at one time, the titular car offered itself as a symbol of such unison. At the tail end of the opening track ‘Imperial,’ they cry out ‘When will you fall?/You’ve got blood on your hands/When you answer the call/But soon you will feel/The consequences of it all.’ The lyric - cowritten by bassist, Kilmer - is perhaps the most direct moment of all on OWNL, suggesting the imminence of our domestic downfall & perhaps ugly conclusions to endlessly rising tensions with our foreign relations. Behind Denari on this song, the band is at its most pleasantly familiar. It acts as a diving board from what you hear on projects like Investigate & Broadcasting. On the following tracks, the band unapologetically plunges the listener into uncharted waters.
Earlier parts of their discography would suggest D.R.L.N. gathered their identity from somewhere in the varying styles of 90s hardcore (Demo through Kissing Booth cassingle). On Broadcasting - their debut full length - guitarists June Smith & Jacob Melton infused more elements of noise-punk in the guitar work while Denari developed a lyrical sense of impending doom. But on OWNL, songs such as ‘Flesh’ & ‘New Space In Time’ are prime examples of this aforementioned sense of arrival, & shine if someone begs the question, where do D.R.L.N. fit in the punk sphere now? Still somewhere between their earlier hardcore & noise-punk influences? Perhaps they’ve moved underneath the goth umbrella? Or have they always been there, forging a new path? It’d probably be best to accept that to them, it just doesn’t matter, as they’ve continually thrived in their chameleonic nature. -- Maude Atlas (@maude__atlas)
- Format Type: 12"