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Modern Artillery

Author: Sam Vinall

The Living End 
Modern Artillery

When one listens to a record from The Living End, to a certain extent one knows what to expect: brilliant musicianship and songs that make you want to get up and fight. ‘Modern Artillery’ provides this all, with breathtaking guitar solos and The Living End’s trademark early eighties rockabilly style, but ‘Modern Artillery’ is both impressively diverse and, when compared with previous album ‘Roll On’, a lot more straightforward.

‘Modern Artillery’ has already spawned the singles One Said To The Other, the anthemic Who’s Gonna Save Us and the early eighties inspired Tabloid Magazine. These are all great songs, especially Who’s Gonna Save Us, which contains what I believe is probably the best guitar solo on the album (which sounds a little like the solo from Hotel California in the way it’s layered).

There are also a surprising number of ballads like Jimmy, Putting You Down (which, if I might go out on a limb seems to me to have elements of Ween and Rod Stewart. So there), the alt-country-sounding So What, and (what I consider to be the best track) In The End. One comparison I could draw from all of the ballads was to Australian stalwarts You Am I; but for old school fans of The Living End there is still plenty of faster tracks like Hold Up, What Would You Do and End Of The World, so you don’t have to worry.

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The Living End – MODERN ARTillery

Author: Lauren McMenemy

The Living End
MODERN ARTillery (EMI)

After singer/guitarist Chris Cheney faced death and won in a car accident, and then founding member Travis Demsey quit just as they were getting back on track, things could have gone pear-shaped for the Living End.

And while, thankfully, things didn’t – with new drummer Andy Strachan moving seamlessly into the fold – that thought seems to dominate much of their third album.

“Will we be remembered?” Cheney asks in Maitland St, while on the epic closer The Room it’s “I wonder if the world is just the same”.

Then there is the one that gets right to the heart of the Living End: “Rising up from the ashes/you know we never meant to burn…”

If their self titled debut was the raw introduction and Roll On its slick, polished sister, MODERN ARTillery is the definitive Living End album. The perfect meld of what has come before, it also has diversity which was needed if the trio was to prove itself still relevant.

There are more melodies among the punkabilly anthems – even a hint of country-influenced steel guitar.

MODERN ARTillery is an impressive outlook from one of the tightest, most inspiring outfits in the country. This is The Living End’s finest hour.