DZ Deathrays - Bloodstreams

You can tell that DZ Deathrays have been listening to Pulled Apart By Horses. Bloodstreams, a title inspired by Mötley Crüe's autobiography, is filled with the raucous, heavy rock riffs and throaty shouting the Leeds band have purveyed recently. But Bloodstreams is by no means a copy-cat album or solely inspired by the Yorkshiremen. Think Trash Talk meets The Black Keys, or The Computers, Damn Terrain and other such bands who come under the punk and 'noise rock' banner. Noise rock - isn't *all* rock noisy? Either way, the two-piece from Brisbane, Australia have such a variety of inspirations, it just happens that their passions have come out of the studio in the same way. They're more vocally more ambitious than some of their proposed peers, with changing tempos and general loudness, and tracks such as 'Play Until You're Dead' have some interesting sounds, not just straightforward thrashing and ranting.

Starting with the 60 second 'Intro', which is in no way representative of what is about to blast your ears away for the next half hour, the album gets into gear with 'Teenage Kickstarts', a rauscous high-tempo riffing and shouting match. It's hard to believe this sound is coming from only two people. This band's noise contains more venom than The White Stripes could ever imagine.

'Cops Capacity' has a kind of "Yeah, come on then, give it a go, dare you" full-on swagger, rather than the "Raaaagh, we're so angry at you" found in the likes of Cancer Bats. These guys aren't throwing the bravado around, they're not messing about, this is a raw, bassy onslaught. They didn't even mess about recording the album - two weeks and boom, it was done.

A slightly haunting organ melody on 'Play Until You're Dead' delivers a more laid-back few minutes, as does the later 'Dumb It Down', but only briefly, just so you can get your breath, then it's straight back into crunching guitar riffs and a pretty up-tempo, dance beat on 'Gebbie Street', which seems almost like a easy-listening track. It's initially a bit 'clubby' with a good vocal melody, then two verses in and off we go again, full-on ferocity and explosive energy. Tracks like 'Dollar Chills' have the same sound Sleigh Bells have been attempting, only done a helluva lot better. It sounds good for starters. It's the shock-factor which makes this album, inconsistencies throughout mean you're never sure what is around the corner.

Already having made themselves infamous rock-n-rollers, knocking back more Jagermeister than Lemmy in their debut video, DZ Deathrays are quite nonchalant about their musical methods. The band were adamant about making a good, solid, rock record, and that's what they've done. Pretty great for a first venture, and done so spontaneously, it reflects their whole nature, and for once a lack of production and fussing with technical intricacies keeps this album in the realms of 'real music'. Loud, brash, in-your-face, this is a great collection of tracks with a tinge of punk, metal, grunge and some dark 80s Depeche Mode-type sounds. Bloodstreams is the type of album that is so raw, noisy and makes absolutely insatiable listening, you'd be daft not to want to see them live.