STACK #163 May 2018

MUSIC REVIEWS

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William Crighton Empire The bells are ringing. They signal that Australian music has a vibrant new voice. William Crighton built a passionate following with his self-titled debut; it was largely word- of-mouth, built on his potent live show. With the energy and intensity of a Midnight Oil record, Empire builds on that momentum. It’s earthy and Australian, with a punk ethos and life-affirming anthems – “When you’re down on your knees,” he sings, “you gotta let love come first” – and the record closes with a compelling cover of Eric Bogle’s The Band Played Waltzing Matilda . Like TomWaits and Nick Cave, William Crighton is an original. But apart from that, he’s like no one else. (ABC/Universal) Jeff Jenkins

Kasey Chambers & the Fireside Disciples Campfire If there’s a girl who knows the importance of a campfire it’s Kasey Chambers. Living in the remote outback of Australia and growing up on the land, the campfire brought a connection to the earth, music and people. With her new band The Fireside Disciples, Brandon Dod, Alan Pigram (The Pigram Brothers) and her dad Bill Chambers, she has finally made an album of songs inspired by times around the campfire. And ticking off the list, she duets with one of her all-time idols, Emmylou Harris.

Parkway Drive Reverence The cover art of Parkway Drive’s new album Reverence is a re-coloured detail of Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens’ The Fall Of The Damned (1620). It’s kind of terrifying in its lusciousness, not least because, hell's bells, it’s a depiction of condemned souls flung like meatbags down into the inferno. In form and theme, it’s an apt visual for the Byron five-piece’s follow-up to ARIA #1 mega-success Ire (2015). Reverence doesn’t

present a simple sacred/profane storybook but teases out the fragments in between those extremes. The live-ready Prey plays on the conflicting spellings and meanings of that word, and The Void thrashes with agility like a hydra- headed whip. Cemetery Bloom includes some of frontman Winston McCall’s most evocative poetry (“My unnatural disaster, my kaleidoscopic gloom, my karmic equaliser, my cemetery bloom”). During closer The Colour Of Leaving , strings start chugging and you expect filthy guitars to leap out of the wind at any moment, but they don’t; McCall’s voice just gets more cracked, and then positively fragile, and then there's just the distant birds cawing and the dirt crunching underfoot. And that’s life, really: sometimes you can marshall all your anger and hurt, and heave it out with great force. But sometimes the fissures slowly become abysses, and then you’re just dissolved. This is a monumental album of huge heart and dogged honesty. (Resist/CookingVinyl) Zoë Radas

Like a campfire, this is an album full of comfort and warmth. (Warner) Denise Hylands

Middle Kids Lost Friends Sydney’s Middle Kids – singer and guitarist Hannah Joy, her husband and bass player Tim Fitz, and drummer Harry Day – have delivered one of the great debut albums of 2018. Arriving fully-formed and swaggeringly assured, this is epic indie rock, searing and soaring. There are some ’80s influences – Joy has the sass of a young Chrissie Hynde – but this is also the sound of right now, with pointed, pertinent lyrics and hooks that will linger in your mind all day. Lost Friends will find fans all over the world. As Joy sings in Don’t Be Hiding , “You don’t have to sell it – I am sold.” (Domino/EMI) Jeff Jenkins)

Pennywise Never Gonna Die With politics moving as fast as they do these days, it’s safe not to expect too much from aging punks. But on Never Gonna Die , Pennywise sound more vital than they have in a long time. While there’s plenty of cynicism, Never Gonna Die has Pennywise ultimately interested in empowering their audience to affect change. “This is the last and dying gasp of the bourgeoisie,” Jim Lindberg spits on We Set Fire , as if to say: you’re almost there, keep going. It’s a shot of furious energy squarely aimed at the new protest generation, and shows Pennywise as punk

Behemoth Messe Noire Behemoth’s rise as black metal hopefuls in the mid-'90s and into the death metal tour de force they are now comes to a dramatic peak with the Messe Noire DVD. The release consists of 2014 studio album The Satanist played in its entirety, not once but twice, at two different events. Both shows were filmed back in 2016 – one in their hometown of Warsaw and the other at the Brutal Assault festival – and the shows display Behemoth’s live worth in convincing fashion. The sound is full, the performances intense, and the stage production is the band's most ambitious yet. Messe Noire is jammed with a tonne of extras as well, making the package even more enticing. (Metal Blade/EVP Recordings) Simon Lukic

Nocturnal Graves Titan Nocturnal Graves are an

Australian blackened thrash metal band from Melbourne, who have been making major steps in the underground since forming back in 2004. Titan is their third album and their first for the reputable Season of Mist. With Titan Nocturnal Graves have refined their attack even further, combining the raw brutality of their early recordings with their razor sharp musicianship to create a collection of songs that will satisfy the primal and cerebral needs of metal fans. Titan is a powerful statement, and a listening experience that should not be missed. (Season Of Mist/Rocket) Simon Lukic

statesmen. (Epitaph) Jake Cleland

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MAY 2018

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