Tragic Earth – Hatred and Tolerance
Release Date: Out Now
Review By: Rod Whitfield
This Melbourne-based four-piece slam out heavy blues based hard rock, but not the type that typically springs to mind when you think of that genre description. They put a very nice twist on it that sets them apart from the soundalike and lookalike pack.
Their sound, lyrics and imagery are tougher and grittier than the regular exponents of the bluesy rock thing. They inject just a touch of darker alternative rock into their sound, check out the filthy fat groove of Voices. They then prove they can blues it up with the best of them on What If, although this is still darker in tone and more atmospheric than your everyday, garden variety bluesy hard rock, and the wah-tinged outro lead break is sweet as.
The lyrics are angrier and more meaning too, touching on such themes as depression and anxiety and the way they afflict so many in our society and the fucked up state that our world is in. The terms ‘party’, ‘chicks’ or ‘rock n’ roll’ are nary to be heard anywhere across the entire length of this album.
There’s also a nice sense of variety and contrast happening within the grooves of this record too. Pretty Vacant is not a Sex Pistols cover, it’s a mid-paced rocker with some nice jazzy chordal work and a great chorus, that tells the tale of a broken relationship. Morbid Fascination is a tasteful, mellow acoustic piece with no vocals. And The Curse of the Nocturnal Eternity rounds things off in charging, fist-pumping style.
Hatred and Tolerance is a big statement from this very promising Melbourne rock act.
