Dredg Band

Dredg is an American rock band formed in 1993 in Los Gatos, California. The band consists of vocalist Gavin Hayes, guitarist Mark Engles, bassist Drew Roulette and drummer and pianist Dino Campanella.

I only got into these guys relatively recently, but I adore them. Four incredible albums, with El Cielo and Catch Without Arms being all-time favorites of mine. Supposedly they've been working on new music, I'm stoked for that!

 

Love the first three albums. They are definitely working on new stuff right now.

Also Dino is one of the most underrated drummers. Dude kills it live.

 

The only album I don’t care for is Chuckles... and that was a pretty steep drop-off sadly.

Yeah, I’ve noticed the drumming is consistently a highlight of this band!

 

With Dredg and then Black Map, Mark has become one of my favorite guitarists.

 

my favorite b-side ever

 

Never listened to Black Map lol

 

Chuckles truly is actually one of the worst albums I've heard in my life, it has maybe one redeemable song if I'm being generous. Just absolutely awful

The other four are all great, I think Pariah is my favourite but it's easy to make an argument for any of them tbh

 

Agreed. I *really* hope the long break without new music has re-energized them and they can return to the quality of all of their stuff pre-Chuckles.

 

@beachdude42 @dadbolt any sources about them working on new music?

 

At some point since Chuckles the guitarist was saying the band suddenly realised that everyone loved El Cielo. Like the band was totally ignorant of how well that album was loved until some tour when they noticed how well the songs were going down? It sounded like some bs to me but hey if that's the way back to their old sound I won't complain

 

Got real into Catch Without Arms when it came out back in high school but never really gave anything else of theirs a shot! Great record though.

Probably not effect the above comments were supposed to have but I’m for sure gonna check out Chuckles now out of curiosity haha

 

Chuckles was so bad it made me forgot about this band. But man those first three albums are wonderful. Hope whatever is next is much better.

 

That's definitely not an accurate statement. I remember talking to the bassist right after Catch Without Arms came out and I was asking him how the reception had been for it. He was saying that it was mostly positive there are a lot of people who want them to just make El Cielo again and again.

If they're able to recapture the magic they had through their first 4 records though, I won't complain!

 

First three LPs were fantastic. Chuckles was abysmal. I personally find that Pariah doesn't hold up very well either, in hindsight, but understand why some fans really liked it.

These guys' trajectory is such an anomaly. I feel bad for them, because it's true that "everyone wants them to make another El Cielo;" and worse, that a solid majority of their fans were pushed away with the direction they took later on. That can't feel good, especially for a working class band without the financial reserves to piss off their fanbase.

But if I'm honest, I feel El Cielo is far above everything else, and I'd rather them make El Cielo II than anything resembling their last couple records. When I listen to some of the stuff on Pariah and Chuckles, I don't even understand how it could be written by the same guys behind Cielo, or vice-versa. Was the music mainly written while they were tripping balls back in the early days? That's the best explanation I've come up with. The lyrics were always kinda shaky, but the musical dropoff from Cielo to Chuckles is unlike anything else I've seen with bands I've loved.

I'm still excited for new stuff, regardless. They've had some great demos and B-sides that may come out of this, like "Wondrous Miracle" and "Blood Stains." I'm confident whatever they record will be a far cry from Chuckles.

 

Woah okay so I started listening to Chuckles out of curiosity and..... yikes. That was way worse than I thought it would be, you guys aren’t kidding. Had to turn it off three songs in haha

 

Alt metal with space-y undertones. They can remind me of Thrice, Chevelle, Cave In or Deftones at once depending on the songs. I'm certain a few of you would be into it:

 

Cats "officially" out of the bag. Gavin confirmed on his personal Facebook account yesterday that Dredg is working on new music! I thought we'd never see the day!

 

when i saw this come up on the threads, i literally thought it was one of them spam titles from the bots

 

Hell yes

 

nice

 

Used to be into these guys back in 2005, that same year I saw them tour with Coheed, mewithoutYou and the Blood Brothers. What a show. I should revisit their first few albums again.

 

that tour was so wild

one of my favorite shows/line-ups

 

Saw them on that Coheed tour as well. Saw them headline again supporting Catch Without Arms with Emery as support which I thought was a funny opener for them. What was even more hilarious was the local support was Cute Is What We Aim For right before they got signed- talk about out of place.

The first time I saw Dredg play though (and how I got into them) was seeing them open for Deftones during S/T tour cycle for Deftones. I'd kill to see that show again!

 

what would you kill, Adam?

 

I still put on Catch Without Arms from time to time. Really complete record, amazing production.