★★★★☆
Possible reactions to the news Violent Soho have named their new album after a Texas town famous for a religious cult siege may include:
(a) Oh FFS, they’re going for the American market;
(b) Please don’t let them turn into U2; or simply
(c) Hell fuck yeah, a new Violent Soho album.
Thankfully, a first listen reveals the band to be the same Mansfield scruffs they have always been, and most certainly not prepared to switch from XXXX to Budweiser just yet. After the all-conquering success of 2013’s Hungry Ghost, the quartet must have wondered whether sticking with the tried-and-trusted alt-rock formula or trying something different was the right move, and it’s the former policy that has won out here.
Shout-along anthems (‘Viceroy’, ‘Like Soda’, ‘Holy Cave’), drug references (‘How To Taste’) and huge grungy riffs (just about everything else) are the ingredients long-term fans know and love, while there are changes of pace in slow-burning closer ‘Low’. It took eight months for singer-guitarist Luke Boerdam to write the 11 tracks here, and he has kept his subject matter as close to home as always: boredom, drinking and smoking with friends.
It’s been a long road for Violent Soho to get where they are today, but if Hungry Ghost was their breakthrough, Waco will be the album that cements their place as one of Australia’s best rock bands.
Violent Soho’sWacois out now thorugh I Oh You.
