When “All Dawgs Go To Heaven” begins, with its chugging electric guitar part, the band that comes immediately to mind is Green Day. Taken from the Tennessee band’s If Requiems Were Record Deals, the track alternates between loud and quiet sections, much like memorable Green Day tracks.
This group is led by Chris Pietrangelo, who also plays bass with Memphis metal band Medieval Steel. This band is also a brotherly act, as Chris’ brother is the act’s bass player. The group already has a prior CD under its belt, Wildfire.
The song title doesn’t play into the song’s lyric. Pietrangelo sings passionately with plenty of hyperbole. It’s difficult to make out exactly what Pietrangelo is singing about this song. There’s plenty of creative wordplay going on. He may be singing about something specific, but he’s never going to come right out and spell that out for you. Bless his heart!
When Pietrangelo sings, “What’s in your medicine that makes you such a freak?” it makes you wonder if this is just a strange guy he’s spotlighting. He is that, or ‘medicine’ might just be a veiled way to sing about drug abuse. We just don’t know.
The track closes with Pietrangelo warning, “We’ll all be dead and gone before too long.” Yes, the man has a flair for the overly dramatic, the same way some liberal politicians are warning us that, if we don’t do something consequential about climate change, the world’s going to come to an end in 12 years. Of course, these words are likely only meant to get our immediate attention. Then again, these politicians don’t sound like they’re attempting to embellish the facts.
Fingertrick’s driving punk rock groove is perfectly suited for Pietrangelo’s words. It’s not surprising Pietrangelo is also in a heavy metal band. That’s another genre that thrives on drama. Whether it’s songs about crazy religious zealots or international war machines, heavy metal just doesn’t ever sweat the small stuff. Similarly, if this single is any indication. Pietrangelo loves to paint big, vivid pictures.
Again, Pietrangelo might be painting with broad brush strokes to avoid having to spell out the details. It’s almost as though Pietrangelo is aware that the protagonist in his song knows who he’s singing about. Assuming, of course, these lyrics are even inspired by a true-life story.
It’s also worth noting how melodic “All Dawgs Go To Heaven” is. It has a melody you will remember and hum along with immediately after hearing it for only the first time. Pietrangelo may be a charged vocalist, but he never sacrifices real singing for this fervent sonic inspiration. Granted, the term ‘pop-punk’ has gotten a bad rap in some quarters. That’s because some of these pop-punk acts water down their music to the point where nearly all the punk part of it washed out. Such is certainly not the case with Fingertrick. This is full-power rock & roll, performed with original punk rock spirit, and not at all watered down anything. Playing with the spirit of punk rock is something conspicuously absent from some of the worst examples of pop-punk.
This is fantastic stuff, and no dawgs were hurt it its creation.
https://www.fingertrickmusic.net/
-Dan MacIntosh