DZ Deathrays incorporate unexpected elements without sacrificing the wild energy that's defined them since 2008.
DZ Deathrays co-founders Shane Parsons and Simon Radley have been playing together since 2008, with additional guitarist Lachlan Ewbank joining in 2018.
“Should I move aside or keep the dream alive?/ Feels like it’s a waste, being lost in this space…” – built from Parsons’ home-recorded piano chords, Warped logs a realisation: Parsons and Radley are rapidly approaching a time of life where they’ve been playing in the band for longer than they haven’t.
This album’s closer features sustained strings and atmospheric synth, eventually freefalling down a wormhole of smashing drums and searing guitars.
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After easing in, the opening title track – which explores the rise of surveillance technology – escalates into a wild, cocksure ride: “It’s easing out of control/ It’s easy to get out of control.”
On album number seven, DZ incorporate dance music elements while maintaining their signature grit. Sideways evokes Primal Scream’s Rocks: “Get ya sideways/ Get ya sideways/ People crush their biscuits…” – aha, we suspected it was a love letter to pingers!
We never would’ve foreseen a touching, piano-led power ballad – featuring sad-robot BVs, no less – in DZ’s future (Real Love), but we’ll allow it (think: Mötley Crüe’s Home Sweet Home). None could resist First Night Fever’s cartoon-caveman “OO! Ah!” BVs.
“Burning bridges, yeah, that’s me…” – Demolition concludes with a bang: thwacking drums, rabble-rousing guitars and the loudest unhinged Parsons yowl yet.
Since making killer tunes is a core component of their individual identities, DZ Deathrays are lifers. They also boast enduring, teenage-dirtbag appeal: “Know that this is real and no one gives a shit…”
LABEL: DZ WORLDWIDE
