Rock

Author: Shaun Carney

THE LIVING END
The Living End
Modular/EMI

YOU have to hand it to Melbourne trio The Living End for its capacity to put together an album’s worth of material on its self-titled debut. Essentially, the sort of post-punk musical territory in which The Living End operates is, as the band’s US counterpart Green Day has shown, an exercise in which three pots are being cooked on a twa-burner stove. There’s a fast approach, there’s loud/quiet/loud approach, there’s a pop approach. To their credit, Chris Cheney, Scott Owen and Trav Demsey know enough about their oeuvre to mix and match in order to sustain interest over 47 minutes. Cheney’s unrestrained vocal style is particularly good on the less punky tracks such as the swamp rocker Bloody Mary and the poppy Growing Up (Falling Down). Saleswise, this is one of Australia’s biggest contemporary bands. This promising effort will do well and enough skill is on show to suggest that, like other angry punk acts such as the Clash and Green Day. The Living End will add to its stylistic armory in the future.