HellionsAs you approach listening to this, the fourth album from Sydney four-piece Hellions, take this advice: go into it with your mind wide open, for Rue truly does stretch the boundaries of what a rock album can be.
Comparisons to My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade are inevitable but Rue is very much its own beast. It is every bit as theatrical as The Black Parade and every bit as entertaining and engaging. If anything, it is even more varied. If there is one tiny criticism to be levelled at this record, it’s that Hellions may have thrown too much at it. Even the snare drum sounds completely different on almost every song. All that said, virtually every experiment works and everything they throw at the wall sticks like glue. It’s a cohesive (and apparently adhesive) highly listenable piece of art from start to end, so the overflow of ideas, styles and colours never becomes an issue.
Better to have too much inspiration than too little. Better to be throwing kitchen sinks at an album rather than desperately scratching for ideas.
Ultimately, be ready for a wild and dramatic ride. Rue is a rock album, a pantomime, a vaudeville show and a circus for the ears, all rolled into one.
