Band:	Dope
Album:	Blood Money Part Zer0
Style:	Industrial metal, Nu metal
Release date:	February 2023

01. No Respect
02. Believe
03. Best Of Me
04. Choke
05. Dead World
06. Misery
07. Lovesong
08. Dive
09. Parasite
10. Row
11. Fuck It Up
12. Wide

Addicted to that rush. 

My fellow dope fiends, let us gather round, grab a syringe and delve deep into what is on offer... what's that? Wrong script? Oh, I am sorry fellow metalheads, that was my Oscar speech; I brought the wrong dope to the wrong party. I'm supposed to be talking about Dope, so er, grab your headphones and delve deep I guess, I just have to... go do something first. 

Dope are a band who get a bad reputation, one of those bands who had the misfortune of gaining attention when they were at their worst, only to improve as interest in the band dwindled. While nu metal has seen somewhat of a resurgence in recent years, Dope remain among the lower tiers of the genre, coming in on the tide rather than riding a wave back to shore. Returning with the second edition in the Blood Money series apparently, Blood Money Part Zer0 sees the band try to broaden their appeal by mixing in influences and sounds from more than just their original industrial nu metal core. 

Proceedings start out well enough, with a strong opening in "No Respect", and the following "Believe" and "Best Of Me" showcase how catchy the band's industrial-tinged nu metal sound can be. The choppy guitars mix well with the gritty and dirty downtuned aesthetic the band revel in, while the keyboards add tinges of light in dark soundscapes. One is left thinking that maybe Blood Money Part Zer0 will be a consistent album that rivals other bands in the revival scene. 

It's from "Choke", however, that things take a turn for the worse; while it's far from a crash and burn, the likes of "Dead World" and "Dive" are a step below the three opening tracks, albeit still having their entertaining qualities. It is at this point you may notice that Dope shift their sound towards a Motionless In White direction: two bands who have a surprisingly big overlap that I hadn't noticed until "Misery" played out. 

Dope manage to merge their original dingy, industrial nu metal sound with metalcore with surprising ease; while I may not be fully sold on the results, credit is due that the production retains the charm of the former while balancing the change in direction of the latter. No one member puts on an outstanding performance, but as a unit, the band are tight and create a sonic aesthetic that will get under your skin. 

While I had hoped "Dive" would be worse than it was, so I could make a pun on the quality of the songs at the end of the album, it robs me of this chance and leaves me to just unwittingly say that the album craters with "Parasite" and fumbles around in the wreckage until the album closes, leaving you with a bitter aftertaste towards an album that started out well enough. "Fuck It Up" highlights the worst tendencies of nu metal, with the chuggy riff doing little to excite and the lyrics sounding like someone who just discovered swear words and wants to sound edgy... hang on a second, yeah, no, Fred Durst didn't write them (just had to check). 

While Blood Money Part Zer0 has its highs and lows, it mostly evens out to a record that sits right in the middle, on the head of the pin. Dope do continue to dispel their negative reputation, though they only raise the bar a few notches rather than drastically lift it on Blood Money Part Zer0.