The Owen Guns x Dawn of the Braindead
Full disclosure, I love this band!
Where in principle some bands tour to promote an album, this album merely serves to hopefully entice you to a show, where you too will wish these guys were your golfing pals.
At the expense of a few eggs - we have in Dawn of the Braindead a delicious omelette, but as for those eggs; in headphones, at least, you can hear the a distinct difference in obviously different sessions and producers. The musicianship and craft doesn’t wain but the dynamic in tones isn’t always favourable to the ear.
Knowing how best to pigeonhole these guys - on this record at least, is difficult beyond just “Punk” amidst the pantheon of styles that the genre houses. They’re not quite Oi!, but there is a lot of bloke-chorusing, they’re not quite political, but there are a number of important topics brilliantly attacked. What they’re definitely NOT is inferior Pop Punk.
I doubt we’ll get to hear much of these guys on the radio due to the consistency of curse words, but only an ignorant cunt would let that deter them from enjoying this album.
If this album were a person, it would have a clowns nose and carry a placard on some anti-corporate picket line, only to drop that placard to help mind your kids; and you’d be comfortable with that.
Vocalist St Leone’s strongest moments are ironically on the least inspiring song - Five Bees. The band are faultless throughout. Drummer, Ma Tu, seems to be more prevalent than the average punk skin-smasher, with several additional performance roles. Outtaspace Presents, renowned for their ambassadorship of good “beneath radar” sounds, have truly done it again with this album.
People familiar with previous releases will appreciate the critical content; resource theft, child protection, anti-popularism and destruction of exploitative capitalists, which all feels like the resolution of a series than more-of-the-same.
Again, Dawn of the Braindead is a mere business card for one of the most engaging live bands in Australia at present. Get it, learn it, see it.