Album Review: Self Is A Seed - Siren

Following on from last year's Gravitas EP, Sydney punk/rock quartet Self Is A Seed have now released their confident debut album Siren. These guys haven't been around for too long, but already they're making waves and throwing down the gauntlet to the more established rock artists of Australia.

Opening track Thought You Would unapologetically shoves its hard-hitting rock stylings into the listener's spectrum, and while you might feel like you've heard plenty of rock like this before, don't get too carried away making assumptions about what lies ahead – the album is actually full of surprises, lurks, twists and turns. Fluorescent Tradition stumbles onto the scene a few tracks later, with a couple of seconds of deliciously dark, grungey intro, followed up with hooks which will force you to turn up the volume as loud as you dare. There's even some bongo drums right at the end. RFID has an almost dancy feel to it, which comes from the short, fast contributions from guitar and drums, while Dave Bleus' vocal diversity really shines. He shifts seamlessly from melodic singing to raging screams; at times he even sounds a bit like John Lydon. The track finishes up with slurring guitar licks which sound like they could be right at home on a QOTSA album.

Siren is a ridiculously good debut. This is clearly a band with superior songwriting abilities, and they're able to back it up with inspired production efforts, which is commendable considering the band insist on remaining completely independent. If this is just the beginning for Self Is A Seed, we can't wait to see what comes next.