Welcome to another installment of the “Signmeto” Unsigned Band of the Week feature, that thing where I talk about a band I found on the “Sign Me to Roadrunner Records” website.  You know the drill by now — you listen to some songs from a band you might not have heard before.  Then later, when they explode in popularity and sell a million records, you can scoff at all the bandwagon-jumpers, saying you’ve been a fan since the beginning.

Today, I’m presenting you with Dirty Shirt, who are from the Northern Transylvania region of Romania.  Their sound is made up of a hybrid of many different influences, but for the most part I would describe them as a sort of industrial nu-deathcore.  The band first formed in 1995, and over the next five years toured extensively throughout Romania, while also recording a few demos and a full-length album, Very Dirty, in 2000.

After a hiatus of a few years, they reformed in 2004, embarking on more touring and recording more demos, followed by a second full-length, Same Shi(r)t Different Day, recorded in 2009 and released in 2010.  Since that time, Dirty Shirt have kept themselves fairly busy playing more live shows across various parts of Europe, as well as putting together videos for three of the songs from their last album.  Those are now available for your viewing pleasure, and if you like what you hear, at the end of this post you’ll find some details how to download the album for free.

The band’s Signmeto Roadrunner Records page contains three songs.  The first of these, “Manifest,” is featured in the video which is embedded below (although the video contains about a minute and a half of samples and sound effects as an intro, which has been truncated from the audio player at Signmeto).  The video is actually pretty cool, visually, with its shades-of-blue color pallette and the incorporation of images of the band members’ performances into a visualization of the song’s sound waves.  One of the more striking things about the song is the bass part (actually, this is true of all their songs that I’ve heard), which is all full of taps and pops, like a cross between Billy Gould and Fieldy.  The rest of the music (again, this applies to all of the songs) is pretty hard-hitting metal, with strong industrial and electronic influences.  Vocally, the backing parts sound pretty good, consisting of rather deep growly stuff.  The main vocal part is much more nu-metal — which is not really my cup of tea, but I know there are a lot of people out there who are into that sort of thing — and actually fairly nasal, so that it comes across almost resembling MC Chris (the guy that does that song about Boba Fett from Zack and Miri Make a Porno).  Near the end of the song (about the last 45 seconds) things take an interesting turn, as sort of a more traditional-sounding folk melody is introduced on top of the metal background, and the bass and other instruments dive into a rhythmic pattern that brings to mind the ending of “Baba O’Riley.”

If you liked that, the Signmeto page also includes two other songs, as I mentioned — “Tell Me Why,” which brings in even more electro-industrial sounds, along the lines of Rammstein or Rob Zombie; and “East West,” which includes a number of guests, including a female vocalist who sings in French, and incorporates a piano part throughout most of the song.  This last song also has a video which can be viewed on Signmeto or the band’s Youtube channel, along with another song, “Pitbull,” which seems to use the dog (which is often associated with fighting) as a metaphor for people in a mosh pit.

The band is currently working on their next album, which they plan to record this summer.  You can find out more information about Dirty Shirt, and keep up with their latest news, through the following: official website, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, Soundcloud, Reverbnation, and of course Signmeto Roadrunner Records.

If you’d like to pick up a free copy of Same Shi(r)t Different Day (128k mp3), send the band an email at info@dirty-shirt.com.  The album is also available for sale in a higher quality format from their webstore, Dirty Shop.

I hope you enjoyed this post – please feel free to share your opinion in the comments below!  Until next week… if you happen to stumble across something you’d like to share (or if you are in a band and are trying to get your music heard), just write to me at my Signmeto “scout” page.  Thanks for reading!