Bristol punk rock ‘n’ rollers Split Dogs have been kicking up a storm all year with a heroic gigging schedule.
In fact, they’re on the road right now as one of the four rotating acts featuring on the first-ever Hi-Stakes Tour (read our review of the first night here).
Yet somehow they’ve found the time to record a new album, Here To Destroy, which will be released on 28 February 2025 via Venn Records. You can pre-order it HERE.
The latest taste of it is new single Monster Truck, which was released today alongside pre-orders for the album, which is the follow-up to last year’s excellent self-titled debut.
“Monster Truck is about lessons learnt, seeing it coming, but you keep on trucking,” says guitarist Mil Martinez. “Focus on yourself and the good stuff around you. Be strong, lead with an open heart. Don’t take kindness for weakness … you better not tread on me!”
For the video, it was clear Split Dogs needed some seriously big trucks to do justice to the song’s giant riffs, so they called on Big Pete Ltd, the UK’s most successful Monster Truck Team, and Big Pete did not let them down.
“When we wrote Monster Truck it was a no-brainer that we had to find the best Monster Truck team in the UK to join us for the video, so on the hottest day of the year, we hit the road! Big riggs, big riffs and big moves, it’s time to grab your gear stick and get your mind out of the dirt!”
Martinez and vocalist Harry Atkinshad the idea to form a band as far back as 2015, with the name Split Dogs taken from the classic zombie film Return Of The Living Dead.
But it wasn’t until 2022 that Split Dogs officially arrived, with bass player Suez Boyle joining in 2023. Already a prominent figure in the queer punk scene, she played the first-ever Rebellion Festival at 16 with her band The Walking Abortions.
Up until that point, drummer Chris Hugall, an old friend of Martinez and former member of ska punks Mouthwash (signed to Rancid’s label Hellcat back in the day), was only on hand to help design artwork. It wasn’t until 2024 that he joined the band full-time, cementing the current line-up.
Raucous live shows saw the four-piece make a name for themselves among the punks of Bristol, and then much wider afield, and they made a triumphant Rebellion debut on the Introducing stage this year.
The first taste of the new album came in May, with the And What? single, and now they’re back with a bang with Monster Truck.
As the album title makes clear, Split Dogs are here to destroy, but they’re also here to rebuild and remind us of music’s essence. “We’re not beholden to the digital age, we don’t want to get famous on social media, we just want to show the world that rock’n’roll is alive and well.”
