Dirty Wolves are a metal band like no other, a group ready to push the envelope at every opportunity.
Their new concept album, Creation & Chaos aims to explore humanity through notions of formation, destruction and control and during the three-year formation of the project, guitarist/vocalist Alex Hermes and drummer Graeme Young took it upon themselves to act as ambitiously as possible, both musically and thematically. The end result is an album that lands with substance.
“We didn’t do it for the success of the album, we just did it because we wanted it to represent something as a whole, and for all the tracks to cover a certain subject,” Hermes says. “So, you know, you’ve got ‘Terra, Pt. 1’, which is [about] our work destroying the earth: you know mining and tracking and things like that. Then you’ve got ‘Leviathan, Pt. 1’, which is about the control of religion. You’ve got ‘Chaos’, which speaks for itself, and you’ve got ‘Creation’. So every track on there … we sort of picked out themes, and we’re covering them sonically.”
Over the space of 12 pounding songs, the two-piece batter the listener into submission, and Creation & Chaos is nothing if not a truly unrelenting record. ‘Omnisciens Machina’ is the track that best captures this unflinching approach, and the accompanying dystopian video clip perfectly mirrors the song’s themes of technological control.
“Well the track is about, you know, big brother watching us,” Hermes explains. “If you have a look, corporations are using your telephones: they’re even admitting it. Sony PlayStation can listen into what’s going on in the lounge room. Police can surveil your lounge room using your phone. Even the AFP got caught out in court by bringing in evidence that [they must have recorded] from a phone call. You’ve got GPS. You know Facebook is telling you where everyone is and what they’re doing, you know they know what you’re searching.”
“George Orwell’s 1984 [has come true]: like every single digital device is now used to make out behavioural patterns so they can put advertising in our faces,” Hermes continues. “So it’s a breach of privacy now. It’s about the world becoming more and more and more controlled… To me it’s an important issue.”
Creation & Chaos neatly sidesteps any limitations one might expect from a prog metal two-piece, and there is nothing stripped back or soft about the record. Propelling forward the album’s imperative messages is technically enthralling instrumentation, something that Hermes attributes to an extensive, non-traditional writing process.
“So to make them each a bit different – I’m not saying that they are different – but in our attempt to make them different, we went back to start with Graeme [who] would actually come in with the beats and map out the drums,” says Hermes. “And that would sort of set my limitations. And I had to work extra hard to try and make it work over his wrists … It was a real rough experience, but you know we’ve put out an album before. We know a thing two, and I just didn’t want to go down that same track where I’m just regurgitating what I’ve done before.
“Graeme and I both really did believe it was progressive, because it’s an opportunity to create something new, or try to create something new. It’s an opportunity to sort of find your own uniqueness,” Hermes continues. “You know, we’re unique individuals. We don’t want to be a clone band. We don’t want to sound like someone else.”
Dirty Wolves’Creation & Chaos isout now through GuitarBaby, and they play the GuitarBaby ShowcaseatSydney Opera House on Saturday September 18, with Red Sea, Simple Stone, James Davies.
