As much as their choice of band name might suggest, Brisbane’s Dire Wolf probably don’t have much time for the Grateful Dead’s brand of Americana. Formed in 2011, the band’s chief goal was to become one of the city’s heaviest bands – and if they couldn’t claim such a feat previously, their 2015 EP release ‘Black Death’ must set them pretty close. In just under twelve minutes, the band lay down a brutal hardcore sound, uncompromising yet thrilling, in a manner that fuses influences from Dillinger Escape Plan with a whole lot more besides.
Tag Archives: aussie
MATTHEW SHACALLIS – Reach The Stars EP
Bringing sunny power pop all the way from Sydney, Matthew Shacallis fronts a three piece band on his 2014 EP ‘Reach The Stars’. It’s a record that conveys a natural sound while still retaining the kind of well-crafted production value you’d expect from his chosen musical niche.
FOREVR – Demonstration EP
This debut EP by Australian-based duo FOREVR is one of those discs you’ll either love or hate within seconds of hitting the play button. With no time to warm up, the band have already shifted from silence to a complete wall of sound in a split second, as the intro ‘Yucatan’ crushes with a huge droning noise. Overdriven guitars with amplifiers turned up to twelve (one even louder) gleefully throw out distorted shapes as chief musician Donovan Miller hammers at an array of effects pedals. From somewhere within, vocalist Sam George-Allen melds her voice accordingly, a filtered sound rising and falling throughout, wisp-like and ghostly as if she’s channelling Elizabeth Fraser on a collaboration with the equally uncompromising A Place To Bury Strangers.
New video from The Oyster Murders
At the tail end of 2013, Autralian dream pop band The Oyster Murders dropped an excellent EP, ‘Mourning Birds‘.
THE QUIET ROOM – All The Frozen Horses
In 2013, Australian rock band Evoletah unveiled ‘We Ache For The Moon’, a huge surprise of an album that threw away most of their previous alternative rock traits in favour of a moody sound combining rock, prog and touches of jazz. One of the best albums of the year, it’s lower-key sounds really seemed in tune with the voice of frontman Matt Cahill, tapping into the understated qualities of his voice. It was a brilliant musical statement – and the band knew it; so, then rather than set about creating a similarly themed successor straight away, Cahill stepped aside and with a huge input from multi-instrumentalist Andrew Muecke, began creating material in a completely different style.