Frontman Jim McCullough has revealed CIVIC’s intention for Chrome Dipped: “Break the mold, melt the steel.”
As such, the band eschewed their usual DIY approach by booking Frying Pan Studios – a recording space set up at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) – and tapping Kirin J. Callinan to produce.
The Fool opens CIVIC’s third album with full-pelt riffs and punchy drumming, but there’s control within the chaos – like punks naturally becoming more proficient on their instruments.
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“A fucked-up wife gets a facelift” – the title track searches for humanity in a world that’s increasingly reliant on technology. If you fell into The Hogg, it’d feel like a tub of oily sludge. Paranoid BVs (“Do you believe?”) echo lead vocals – a protective inner voice making certain, perhaps?
Starting All The Dogs stretches McCullough’s delivery. Vocal melodies are more conversational here, as he toys with how words sound like a slam poet. This standout track eventually descends into shrieking cacophony – more of this direction, please!
McCullough lost his mother during the songwriting process, pouring his grief into art – see: Amissus (a Latin term for loss), resplendent with curly riff, multi-layered vocals, extreme tempo shifts and a chain-rattling breakdown towards song’s close.
Poison, which contains a jaw-dropping Lewis Hodgson guitar solo, takes aim at “people talking shit”.
Elsewhere, Trick Pony closes with measured beats and haunting riffs that howl like a ghost; Fragrant Rice sees McCullough trying on robotic vocals for size; and Hodgson takes lead vocals on the innovative Kingdom Come, which he’s described as “a sort of ballad for a functional drug addict”.
Chrome Dipped captures CIVIC en route to self-actualisation.
