Totally Unicorn’s new album ‘Sorry’ might just be the best Australian hardcore album of the year
Subscribe
X

Get the latest from Beat

03.05.2019

Totally Unicorn’s new album ‘Sorry’ might just be the best Australian hardcore album of the year

By Tom Brand

The Wollongong outfit are more brazen and forthright than ever.

In what will likely be one of the biggest ‘what?’ takes of 2019, Totally Unicorn’s Sorry might just be the best Australian hardcore album of the year.

For a band famous for turning venues into half-naked moshfests, Sorry is an unexpectedly well-dressed record full of contemplation and self-reflection that gazes into the face of human misery – all the while churning out some of the tightest instrumentals the band has had to date.

Each track batters the listener with new forms of experimentation – incredibly intelligent and often subtle polyrhythms backed by loathing lyrics delivered both loud and fucking clearly. Tracks like ‘A Song For The Dead Shits’ burn with instrumental and emotional intensity, to a point where the bursting drumming and grisly depiction of life in nu-suburban hell could earn themselves a national day of mourning. While the cynically delivered mantra of ‘Grub’ could only become more authentic if the vocalist was spitting blood into your ear.

This is the album that the Australian hardcore scene has been needing. It’s daring, experimental and technically sound with enough flaw and fracture to allow the humanity of its subject manner to permeate. Have Totally Unicorn just produced their magnum opus? There’s a very real chance Sorry is exactly that.

8