Heroes, Villains, Boom Boom Boom!

The Melbourne-based rock group have recorded a blistering, stomping debut that sounds like some of the best blues to come out of the local music scene for a good long time.

The 13 songs here are hard hitting, well written, organic, and sometimes clearly meant to be played loud. The style of blues here is definitely more Led Zep/Rolling Stones than Stevie Ray Vaughn, and the band does it well.

The vocals are throaty, earthy and possessed of an easy, sometimes quite dark sounding swagger. The band’s singer, Tom Hartney, sounds older than his time, and evokes the hard rock records of days gone by.

Nothing ever sounds forced or strained, but it sounds appropriately posed at the same time. A standout is the performance on “Every Little Monkey”, where the instrumentation is remarkably restrained and the singing shines out.

The style of the songs is pleasantly broad. While the band keep their focus firmly on the blues/hard rock style they do well, they occasionally experiment with more theatrical sounding pieces, reminiscent of Nick Cave and Tom Waits. The character pieces “Jack The Ripper” and “Sherlock Holmes” work well for this.

Throughout Heroes, Villains, the other five members of the band sound fantastic. The drums and bass keep up a pounding, steady rhythm. The guitars are never forced or overly showy, meaning that the songs remain cohesive and interesting.

Heroes, Villains, Boom Boom Boom! Is a standout album, and a truly impressive debut. The band’s strengths are on display and their songwriting is sharp and on-point. This is good music.

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