Richard Weems
Some old fogeys don't like the 'screaming' music. I might be an old fogey and I love the screaming music. High Tension can scream for me all they want.
Favorite track: Bite The Leash (Burn).
absinthefaery
Kick Ass lead singer. Feels authentically like a multitude of ghosts singing thru her. Blown away by the lyrics. So many layers of dark atmosphere to wrap yourself up in. All with the occasional irresistible guitar hook.
Favorite track: Ghost To Ghost.
High Tension have announced their brutal new album Purge, out June 15 on Cooking Vinyl Australia.
The band’s third album is a fierce piece of work, filled with the sound of frustration, fear, disgust, horror, hatred and – yes – rage, spewed up and moulded into the Melbourne quartet’s most extreme statement yet.
While tradition would suggest heavy acts only lose their intensity with each record, the opposite is true of High Tension. “This was always the direction we were heading into.” Says Utomo.
After forming in Melbourne in 2012, High Tension’s debut album, the following year’s Death Beat, was nominated for an ARIA Award for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal album, while its follow-up, 2015’s Bully, received widespread critical acclaim and saw the group hit the road in support of acts such as Refused.
The High Tension of 2018, however, is a different beast to the one that released those records, thanks to the presence of guitarist and songwriter Mike Deslandes and drummer Lauren Hammel, who both joined after the release of Bully in 2015. (Co-founding bassist Matt Weston completes the line-up). In that regard, Utomo views Purge as a resetting of the High Tension blueprint.
“It was inevitable that we were going to produce a record unlike our previous work; with Lauren and Mike joining the band, our natural response was to reshape our sound.”
While acknowledging that some of her lyrics touch on themes concerning the impacts of colonialism and oppression, Utomo’s main focus on the record is the anti-communist purge in Indonesia in 1965 and 1966 – during which hundreds of thousands of members of the communist party were slaughtered by the military and Muslim groups under the orders of General Suharto just prior to his seizing power of the country – and the intergenerational trauma that still permeates Indonesian society. “In the past I’ve touched on that theme, but on this album it’s referenced more tirelessly”.
The band commissioned Melbourne artist Loretta Lizzio to paint the album’s cover, a striking image of a snake shedding its skin that tied in beautifully with the themes of Purge and the rebirth of the band.
With Deslandes engineering and producing the album – bassist Matt Weston directs all the band’s videos, reinforcing the outfit’s DIY ethic – the quartet were able to take their time in the studio. Tracked at Melbourne’s Sing Sing South in May 2017, Utomo worked on vocals with Deslandes over the following months at The Aviary in Abbotsford.
The final product sounds as tormented as Utomo’s subject matter and the band are justifiably proud of the results.
I love the light and shade between Bryan's dirty and Emma's forlorn vocals. There are so many layers to this recording that are driven home through contrast. Plus the riffs are brilliant and get me moving. I can't stop listening to Thou and Emma in general lately. spaceman2250
never been a big death metal fan but this is actually super accessible for the genre, has fun concepts, and personally i'm always a fan of albums with short tracklists and huge runtimes (for individual songs) Great time, good jumping on point for newbies too. alienasu
Melted Bodies recruit pals like Machine Girl, Fire-Toolz, Xiu Xiu & others to remix the trippy tracks from their last LP. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 9, 2021