In late January of 2020, local Cincinnati band BARK released and recorded their debut album Broke. Later that night they performed a house concert which I was actually in attendance at. The fact that their music was recorded in one day is fitting because they’re definitely a raw band in a good way and this elated energy translates onto the album very well.
The mixing isn’t amazing as you would expect from a local band but it certainly works in BARK’s favor here. A great example of this is the track “Salesman”, which features very wavy and intertwining guitar parts, as the guitar solo and the dashing rhythm guitar almost drown each other out, creating a sense of chaos which fits the track’s lyrical content very well. There’s also the 7 minute long closing epic “Minus”, which features a very heavy and booming guitar solo intermixed with more mellow and slower segments. BARK proves on this project that they are far from a band that makes different variations of the same song, and I think that’s very important. That’s really what makes this band great at heart. They make great party music that you can mosh to yet is also great to listen to on its own accord by yourself.
The Cincinnati local rock scene has really been taking off this year and it’s really exciting to see where it goes from here considering how unexpected and rapid this development has been, and it’s equally as exciting to see where BARK heads next from here. The musicianship and songwriting is great and has a lot of potential, and I will definitely be keeping up with where they head from here.