Austral Thylacine album review

 

Thylacine is the debut album by Austral, which according to their bandcamp page:

is a lively four-piece Australian Celtic band combining cracking uilleann pipe tunes, fiery fiddles, earthy didgeridoo sounds and energetic foot percussion.

My friend Connor Hoy, who I have known for now 11 years plays the uilleann pipes, flute, and whistle. I helped crowdfund the album’s production by contributing $250 in early 2020. I can’t remember how I found out about the project, and to be honest it wasn’t because he told me in person over a few drinks. I wish that was the case.

The album, except for the four cover songs, is entirely music and no lyrics. Because of this, and the tone of the music, I find it very peaceful to listen to even though it is often very fast paced. The songs are also quite short.

Throwdown Hoedown is the opening song and starts with sweeping pace of the violin, and then the whole band kicks in. The tune often changes and I suppose that’s because there aren’t any lyrics.

Thunderberg is a great song that sounds like an adventure. First I imagine a Lord of the Rings hike through mountains and hills, then through the wilderness in China, then the outback when you hear the didgeridoo. It’s very fast and has a great beat. The pace and tone drops later on, and then gets loud and slow. Its only downfall might be that it’s too long at 5 minutes 11 seconds.

Pound A Week Rise is the first cover song, a predominantly guitar-driven song. It tells the story of miners working hard to get a raise after moving to Adani with the promise of better pay, but finding that they’d been lied to. Angus Barbary sings, and his voice is brilliant. I sing this and Beeswing at work sometimes.

No Frills starts in a similar way to Throwdown Hoedown, but is perhaps a bit more repetitive. It is very fast, and when driving home from work it’s a fun song to listen to.

Edgy in Zurich is a nice change from the last three originals, with a slower, beat-heavy tune, except of course when the violin is playing. It is a bit repetitive.

Beeswing is another great cover song with Angus Barbary’s wonderful voice. It tells the story of a young man falling in love with a woman who cannot be tied down. As I said before, I like to sing this one while working. It is a bouncy sort of song, with all of the instruments played purposefully. But I don’t know, I’m not a musician.

Woodford Nights is a slow starting song. It is very delicate and slow, but then the violin starts and it slowly gets faster. The other instruments slowly join. Then it stops and kicks back in with the whole band playing at full speed.  Then it changes tune to be more adventure-esque with didgeridoo and low sounds. The next tune is a rushing sound like you’re running downhill. Then it starts to feel like it’s getting a bit long, but it’s at the 6 minute mark so go figure.

Thylacine is obviously the title song, and is a quiet tune with guitar. Then slowly the rest of the band joins. When I first heard it, I imagined the life story of the little Thylacine on the album art. Sometimes its life is good and sometimes bad, but overall good. The tune sometimes goes lower, and other times higher. It could be seen as being repetitive.

Bok Choy is a slow starting song, with a gentle tune of flute, guitar, and violin. Then the didgeridoo kicks in and the band gets into full pace, the beat starts hitting, so this would be another foot stamping hands clapping song to enjoy live in concert. It does start to feel a bit long, but again it could be because I’ve listened to it so much recently.

Billy Gray is a spoken word cover song with no music. Beth Knight sings, and while she has a great voice, I think that another attempt at recording it might have worked well if they had plenty of time. Sometimes it sounds like she doesn’t know what the next word is. Meanwhile, the story of Billy Gray is quite interesting. It’s the story of a woman being in love with the outlaw Billy Gray and his story.

Henry Bloods is the last song on the album, and additionally a cover song. It is slow, quiet, and I imagine scenery of isolation in the outback. The didgeridoo is more prominent, as are the uilleann pipes I believe.

 

Dream Widow album review

Dream Widow is apparently supposed to be a death metal project by Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters. It came out the day before Taylor Hawkins died, so while I downloaded it that day I didn’t listen until a few days later. It rocks!

Death metal isn’t my favourite metal genre. I’m a bit old school and prefer Motley Crue, Van Halen, Black Sabbath, and Ozzy Osbourne. I do have an Austrian death metal album downloaded, but mainly for the first song. I’ve listened to various Slipknot songs, but I don’t like them overall. I don’t know if Slipknot is supposed to be death metal.

I have listened to most of the album several times.

Choosing my favourite song wasn’t easy, as I like all of them, but undoubtedly Come All Ye Unfaithful is it. It has a great start, epic powerchords, and while death metal lyrics are not easy to hear most of the time, the rolling chorus and screaming main line of “COME!!! All Ye Unfaithful!” is great to me. Then at the end it finishes and there’s this empty corridor sound and then a creepy musical zip.

Cold is the song that I first heard when I read that Dream Widow was a thing on the Foo Fighters Twitter account. The teaser clip for the album plays the part where Dave sings “I don’t wanna wake up.” Thinking about that in the context of Taylor’s death weighed heavily on my early listens to the album. You can easily understand the lyrics, it has a strong start-stop beat, this zombie-like low voice, the rolling chorus of whatever thing is cold.

The Sweet Abyss is a fast-slow song with sharp creepy voices, with my favourite line “How has it come to this? Falling into the Sweet Abyss.” The verses are fast, and then the chorus slow.

Some of the songs feel repetitive and long, but that probably comes from listening to them too much. When you’re excited about listening to it, it’s too short.

March of the Insane is faster than The Sweet Abyss, has a great rolling heavy-sounding part that I love, and the song reminds me a lot of Black Sabbath, especially Children of the Grave with the high-sounding stop. Afterwards is a creepy breathing sound.

Angel With Severed Wings is fast, but maybe not as fast as March of the Insane. You can hear the lyrics better with that zombie-like voice, and when Dave sings the phrase that is the title of the song it coincides with him screaming it and that makes for an awesome sound.

The songs that I specifically choose to listen to are Cold and Come All Ye Unfaithful.

Becoming is a slow starting song with a slowly changing guitar riff and creepy voices that you can’t hear clearly. Then there’s this screaming and rapid strumming (or whatever you would call it). Then there’s a rolling hard beat of drums. Then the lyrics start. “Feel your wrath pulsing through. Life and death becoming you.” Then a heavy rapid strumming, then the song really starts with zombie-like singing. It’s probably one of those songs that grows on you. It is the second longest song, and I just noticed that the songs get longer as the album goes on, the only exception being Cold which is second in order.

Lacrimus dei Ebrius is an even slower starting song. It starts with white noise like a guitar has been left on the ground. It gets louder with occasional chords. Then the song starts and primarily features a back and forth from rapid riffs and beats to slow heavy power chords and beats. It also has this repetitive heavy rock beat that I love. Then the back and forth some more, some quiet acoustic guitar, and finishing with some back and forth again.

My least favourite song is Encino. It is very death metal with rapid chords, beats, and screaming. Then rising powerchords, beats, and screaming. It doesn’t do it for me, so good thing it is very short.

Overall, I loved the album and I don’t dislike any particular song. In the wake of Taylor Hawkins’ death and my multiple playthroughs of this album, I have wondered if there could be more Dream Widow albums. It is hard to say. Dave Grohl loves metal, and this band could be his outlet for it. Whether he imagines a future where Foo Fighters play Dream Widow without Taylor Hawkins, and imagines that future as being a positive experience would be the key influence in its future.