You’re a professional musician. You fixate on creation. On guitar tones. On overarching themes. You’re writing your third studio album in Elphinstone, Australia- a town of less than 500 people. You and your bandmates have temporarily taken up residence here to craft your apocalyptic new LP. You’re thinking about disasters, emergencies, horrific tragedies. Naturally, that starts to bleed over into your dreams. Maybe you start having nightmares about red tinted sandstorms and nuclear explosions. You hear alarm bells in your sleep. But you’re awake now; the alarm bells haven’t stopped. You stumble outside with your bandmates, hot sun already burning down on you. No cell reception and no clue what’s going on. What happens when a not-quite-a-concept-album becomes a reality?
CIVIC are an Australian punk band, formed in 2017, consisting of members Jim McCullough, Lewis Hodgson, Roland Hvlaka, Jackson Harry and Matt Blach. Their debut album New Vietnam was released in 2018 to overwhelmingly positive critical reception. CIVIC’s newest release, Taken By Force, may be well thought out but don’t call it a concept album. The band weren’t curled over desks storyboarding plot points Roger Waters style. They had a grand theme in mind, post-apocalypse, and a wall (haha) of electric guitars at their disposal. The group travelled to Elphinstone, Australia to work on the album and ended up completely immersed in their own inspiration. Woken up by an alert for the local Emergency Services one morning, vocalist McCullough recorded the alarm to his phone. That alarm now opens Taken By Force on the first track, an all instrumental called “Dawn”.
You’re thrown head first into CIVIC’s post-apocalyptic world with militaristic drums that beat alongside the opening siren on “Dawn”. The band then rips into classic punk territory with an undercurrent of sing-song melody a la The Ramones on “End of The Line”. McCullough’s sneering vocals are reminiscent of punk greats Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69 and Stiv Bators of Dead Boys. Title track “Taken By Force” folds in a building anxiety with frantic guitar and lightly buried vocals. It could easily be a lost b-side from The Clash (minus the screeching guitar solo they managed to jam into the short track). The drumming stands out, not in its bombast, but in its precision; the tight hits hold down tracks “Fly Song” and “Blood Rushes” particularly well. “Trick of The Light” comes in at the perfect place in the album. Just when the 70’s punk nostalgia is starting to get old, the group switches things up with a track that mixes the 90’s alt mentality with the gluttony of 80’s hair metal. Sleazy, Iggy Pop inspired number "Neighbourhood Sadist" is refreshingly moody and just spare enough to make you crave the earlier guitar solo studded tracks. Lyrically dense, as exemplified in “Wars or Hands of Time”, the album rewards you on second and third listens. Taken By Force keeps your attention with layered instrumentals and dueling inspirations. The clash of fast punk tracks mixed with the grandiosity of 80’s-esque guitar solos creates an original sound sure to keep you on your toes. Closing track “Dusk” brings home the post-apocalyptic theme with heavy static and a cacophony of noise. It leaves you feeling distinctly shaken. The album as a whole is complex punk, a well thought out, and well executed, battlecry.
In Taken By Force, CIVIC succeed in surrounding themselves, and their listeners, with a soundscape so indisputable, so brutal, there’s no choice but to surrender to it. If distortion counted as words the album would be poetic. CIVIC’s music has always given a clear sense of who they are and this ripping new album does nothing but reinforce that.
