Melbourne's Blacklevel Embassy has always been a brutal band, their musical dexterity never overshadowing the harsh rhythms they wield with precision. Third longplayer, New Veteran, is the clearest indicator yet that the trio – Adam Cooper, Brett O'Reilly and Joel Ellis – are in the upper echelon of punishing rock acts in Australia. Yet the inadvertent belief in the band being a gloomy, overly solemn group is finally put out to pasture, in its place a darkly humorous band bent on skewering the banalities of everyday life.
“In the past people have seen us play hard, brutal, heavy music and thought there is no room for humour there,” Cooper concedes. “But people who have liked the band always got that a lot of it is tongue-in-cheek. All the songs are true, are based on people we know or events that have happened, situations we have been in. The first record was more introspective on my part, but now I've stripped that away to look at more common things that happen around us, interesting stories or anecdotes. It can be cryptic and that is often deliberate; often the darkest lyrics are about something trivial, yet often lead to something introspective and dark. We aren't writing to a crowd, we are writing to amuse ourselves, so everyone else can make their own interpretations.”
The heady mixture of humour and sweat-inducing tension brings to mind the sonic templates of The Jesus Lizard and Future Of The Left, bands Cooper openly admits are massive inspirations. That said, lyrics are often secondary to what is effectively the Blacklevel Embassy sound.
“I have always been attracted to that juxtaposition and I would mention King Buzzo [Melvins]. Often his lyrics are just ridiculous. You could say the same about Kurt Cobain [Nirvana]. The lyrics often become secondary to the phrasing. I spoke to Falco [of Future Of The Left] and he said that when you're screaming, no one cares what you're saying anyway, just whether it sounds good. He clearly takes time and effort with his lyrics, but when playing live that doesn't matter. That's not the point for me; I want people to understand and interpret meanings from the lyrics as well. Brett works differently – he has that more flippant way of delivering lyrics, which is a good counterbalance to me. I liken us to Chuck D and Flava Flav; the straight guy and the 'other' guy.”
Blacklevel Embassy will be playing the following shows:
Saturday 10 November - The Gasometer, Collingwood VIC
