Album Review: High Tension - Death Beat

Bringing together members of Young and Restless and The Nation Blue was always going to be a blueprint for great things. But don't call this a supergroup. High Tension are nothing but their own entity, and with Death Beat they put a sizable rocket under the Aussie hard rock community.

The record roars into life with Blaze Up, the track leaving you in no doubt the quartet are playing for keeps. And if volatile songs like Collingwood and Mountain Of Dead could spit in your face they would, and do so with a smile. The shrieks of frontwoman Karina Utomo cut into your skin like knife blades and are omnipresent across this debut. She loses her shit at will while vitriolic punk rock explodes forth relentlessly. Guitarist Ash Pegram maintains that perfect balance between fully charged and completely lost, while the formidable bass work of Matt Weston gives these tracks enough weight to drag you to the bottom of the ocean. Once Dan McKay has banged the whole thing into shape with his rhythms, Death Beat is all but ready for war.

Produced by Melbourne-based Kiwi rock pig Tom Larkin, the Shihad drummer has managed to capture and contain High Tension's fire without diluting it on record. And although there are slight reprieves like Astral Plane, for the most part this is music designed to maim. Fire warnings need to go out in capital cities and regional areas before these guys return to the road.