Album Review: DZ Deathrays - Black Rat

You can't stay young forever, and you can't party like you're young forever. Even Lemmy's got diabetes now, and if lifestyle choices can catch up with Lemmy, what hope do the rest of us have? On their second full-length, Brisbane's perennially partying duo sound like they're starting to come to grips with this realisation. But what's so compelling about Black Rat, the band's follow-up to their 2012 debut, Bloodstreams, is how subtly they are transforming away from their indie punk party thrash origins. And that's a good thing because, rather than devolve into a parody of their former selves and become LMFAO with greasier hair, DZ Deathrays are maturing and finding ways to up their musical game on Black Rat. There's still the same mix of pulsating dancefloor rhythms colliding with gnashing garage punk guitars and Shane Parsons' howls, especially on cuts like Gina Works At Hearts – but where things used to be charmingly shambolic now structure seems to be more of a consideration. Things are getting tighter and the pair are writing better songs, like Night Walking. As a result, Black Rat sounds like a record you could listen to when you're pre-gaming ahead of a big Saturday night, or when you're going to work on Monday morning.

If DZ Deathrays' existence thus far has been a party, Black Rat is the sound of the duo starting to turn down the stereo at the end of the night to let people know it's time to leave. It's going to be exciting to see what they do for the after-party.