dogflesh’s “Through Your Veins” Makes Me Wish I Was Moshing in Rome
Artwork by Vincenzo Silvano
A third of the way through dogflesh’s latest release, “Through Your Veins,” lead singer Vincenzo Silvano asks a corrosive lover, in a hushed, anguished tone, “Am I showing enough skin for you?” His echoing vocals mingle with reverb guitar and bell-like atmospheric layers, establishing a dreamlike ambience amid an otherwise explosive expression of resentment.
Plunging back into the chorus’s heavy, punchy tempo and deep driving bass line, its sonic whiplash mirrors the chaos of a tumultuous relationship—a dynamic the Rome-based band has explored frequently in their discography and is now pushing further with their second-ever single, released on May 5th. “You’ll never/Want/Me to/Pretend to do (clot)/Like you/I’ll never,” Silvano screams over high-gain riffs, referring to a “cold” partner who is unwilling to reciprocate the vulnerability they desire from him.
Unlike emerging acts who may find emotional exposure daunting, the nu-gaze ensemble has chosen to embrace thematic depth. Since the debut of their three-track project, “Flesh is Fragile,” on January 9th of this year, this is evident in songs like “Black Spell” and “Ether,” in which they confront a familiar, poisonous entity. “You find me/A thing to destroy/You want me dead/I’m not just a toy/And while I was/Drowning in sick/You were laughing.” Atmospheric lyrics bring to light the psychological impact of being attached to someone who enjoys watching the narrator suffer. “You like/My voice when I get hurt/Flesh is/Fragile.”
When the dam inevitably breaks, the bridge of the song comes crashing down into a hard, sludgy beat perfect for full-body heaving and head-banging. Multiple instruments strumming in lockstep with the percussion make it a different beast from the rest of the track, and the most hardcore segment they’ve produced thus far in their catalog. The screeching repetition of its final line, "Till nothing there is left of me,” transmits an animalistic aggression to the listeners, sparking an urge to throw oneself around in one of the band’s fiery mosh pits—a space saturated with raw feeling and like-minded souls.
On dogflesh’s “Through Your Veins,” the inner turmoil of surviving a toxic dynamic has been transformed into an unapologetic act of catharsis, offering sanctuary to those who have lived it and perspective to those who have not. As the band goes on to evolve, adapting to the ever-changing seasons of their career, they are establishing themselves as artists willing to say hidden truths out loud, especially when they aren’t pretty.