“Who gave you the fucking right?“
While one may begin to sound a tad like a broken record, there is really something grand going on down in Australia within its music scenes across Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide. The list of bands making some of the most pissed-sounding material on the planet include Skorn, Identity Error, Eight Count, Splinter, Stressed and Gravitate. It’s a revival of a scene that was burning the dregs of the cringe-inducing ‘Aussiecore‘, which some acts still seem intent on getting every last puff out of.
Returning act Starve look throw their hat into the ring when it comes to being one of Australia’s strongest prospects in this scene. They first carved their name out with EP Nausea, including fierce track “Sour Times“, that spat out venomous lines unlike anything that year. Bar their double single under the title of Six Feet Into The Poppy Field, things had gone quiet on the Starve front until “Patchwork” dropped earlier this year, alongside the announcement of their debut full-length Life’s Promise Dies, and yes, it is as heavy and rancorous as you could hope for.
A cute sample from Nymphomaniac: Vol. I ushers in Life’s Promise Dies before “Nightmare at My Door” rolls in. What immediately hits the ear is the mix on the drums, notably tight while have the feel of being stuck in a steel trash can, being beaten with baseball bats. It’s here and beyond that the sick work from Darcy Caroll, who has taken on the role form Todd Tombleson after moving onto Terminal Sleep, carves out grooves and moments of brutality that give Life’s Promise Dies its foundations.
“Deadly Weapons” offers up the first of rough and gnarly features, with Blaythe Steuer of No Cure offering up their lungs to add an extra edge to the heaviness Starve offer up. The second coming on “World of Shit” from Bobak Rafiee of Justice For The Damned is noteworthy, as the shotgun blast beats and chainsaw riffs on this track are topped with Rafiee‘s vocals; it’s a killing floor of a track. Both these features perfectly aligning with the MO of Life’s Promise Dies – being hard as fucking nails.
Tracks like “starve2death” sit in the original vein of “Sour Times” from all those years ago, with its callout “Always with the whining, you’re acting like a fucking bitch“, packing in a fuelled sense of hatred. On “Nothing More” and the record’s closer “Life’s Promise Died Long Ago“, Starve delve into their unnerved and anguished nature. Melancholic chords are strummed while Dunbar yells out pained vocals, creating something quite stark. The closer is opened by a neat Blade Runner 2049 sample through “(Void)” which has a discomforting nature to it. Its progression is a mocking descent into mental hell.
Life’s Promise Dies is a heavy and unhing records at every moment. While it might seem one-track to some, Starve deliver on a sound that they have seemingly refined over the years, and have absolutely delivered. They cut away the bullshit of the genre and piece together potent tracks with succinct features, that ensures Life’s Promise Dies is one of the harshest listens many will encounter this year.
8/10
Life’s Promise Dies is out July 26th via independent release, and can be pre-ordered here.