By Jim Rowland
Thanks to the likes of Amyl & The Sniffers, Civic, Stiff Richards, and a fair few others, Australia has been churning out some top quality punk-infused rock’n’roll in recent years. Sydney’s C.O.F.F.I.N may have been around for a little longer than those bands, but their contribution to putting Australia on the contemporary rock ’n’ roll map is no less effective. Their fifth full-length studio album ‘Australia Stops’, the highly-anticipated follow-up to their monumental ‘Children In Finland Fighting In Norway’ album from 2020, is unleashed this month, and it’s proof that there’s no stopping this band.
‘Australia Stops’ manages to take the raw power of the Detroit proto-punk scene, principally the Stooges of course, add a twist of the kind of stuff Turbonegro were doing in their prime, and fuse it with a healthy smattering of the no-nonsense rock hard rock’n’roll Aussie bands did so well in the ’70s and early ’80s, most notably Rose Tattoo.
The likes of ‘Give Me A Bite’, ‘Cut You Off’, ‘Australia Stops’, ‘City Sun’ and ‘Faceless’ are all dirty, high-octane, punk-infused slices of top notch rock ’n’ roll operating at tempos ranging from fast to faster, with ‘Lover’s Leash’ and ‘Through The Sewer’ putting the foot on the accelerator even more for these two chunks of vicious, heavy punky thrash. It’s all sung with a loud and proud Aussie accent too.
In contrast, the belting harmonica-driven hard rock blues of ‘Beasts’ works at a slower tempo and is indeed a beast of a track and, along with ‘Keep It Dark’ and ‘Factory Man’, adds to the quota of killer riffing hard rock action on the album, probably the ones where the influence of the mighty Rose Tattoo shines through a bit more.
All killer with no filler, ‘Australia Stops’ is one awesome album, and a proof that when it comes to dirty, in-yer-face punky rock’n’roll, Australia is producing some of the best bands right now.
- ‘Australia Stops’ is out now.
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