Incredibly, this album has been percolating in the minds of Sydney rockers Department of Gloom for seven years; So, with Department of Gloom‘s album release imminent and the album finally assailing our ears in the Sentinel Daily office the first question you’ll doubtless want answered is: was it worth the wait?
Well, I’m happy to report that the answer to your query lies resoundingly in the affirmative. DoG have come up with an album that is not only a perfect sum of their parts (if you’ve been paying attention since 2016 you’ll remember that this is a band born of a lineage made up of names like Jerk, The Genitorturers and The Candy Harlots), it’s also a glorious mashup of everything that’s ever been worth a damn in the last fifty years of rock n’roll. So, in no particular order, you’ll find names like Kiss, The Cure, The Cars, Cheap Trick, Mötley Crüe, The Wildhearts and The Damned all rubbing shoulders… but not in a horrible, rip off way, you understand… Oh no, these blokes have clearly bathed in those influences to such an extent that incorporating them into their writing has become a easy as sliding into a set of stage-ready pleather strides; The little quote from The Cars’ Just What I Needed that finds it’s way into standout track I Dare You is pure genius, but it fits the song perfectly, and time and again you’ll find Department of Gloom bringing these great moments in rock into their own work with devastating accuracy and, it has to be said, most gratifying success.
It’s pointless to go through the tracks one by one here – we’ll save that for the inevitable interview – but it’s worth noting that, whatever your own particular taste in rock n’roll poison there’s plenty to enjoy here, whether it be the chirpy power pop of I Dare You, the goth-tinged filigree of Break The Silence or the belting heavy rock of Precious Love, you’re gonna lap all of this up like the beyond-help rock dog you obviously are…
It’s rare, in these jaded times when the world and his wife are seemingly submitting albums to Sentinel Daily for review, to find something as fabulously satisfying – not to mention steadfastly dud-free – as Department of Gloom. Good guys playing great music are at a serious premium in 2023 – so give these blokes a leg-up and get hold of this as soon as is humanly possible!
Department of Gloom releases on July 14th.
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