ALBUM REVIEW: Frenzal Rhomb – The Cup Of Pestilence (Fat Wreck Chords)
Frenzal Rhomb are a punk band formed in 1992 in Sydney, Australia, and The Cup Of Pestilence is their 10th album, and their first in six years.
The previous one, 2017’s Hi-Vis High Tea, made the Top 20 in their homeland, and I wouldn’t bet against this one doing the same.
There’s a rich seam of punk bands Down Under right now, with the likes of Amyl & The Sniffers, The Chats, The Rumjacks and Bad//Dreeems making waves far beyond their home shores.
Influential band
Frenzal Rhomb have been at it longer than all those bands put together, and, dare I say it, been an influence on them all.
Vocalist Jason Whalley is the only original member, though guitarist Lindsay McDougall and returning drummer Gordy Forman are long-time members. This is the first album which new bassist Michael Dallinger has played on.
They play a heady mixture of punk, skatepunk and melodic hardcore, and The Cup Of Pestilence is a mammoth 19 songs long, though only a couple pass the two-minute mark.
It opens with frenetic lead single Where Drug Dealers Take Their Kids, and it’s immediately clear that Frenzal Rhomb aren’t afraid to tackle subjects which others might consider taboo.
You could say they don’t take themselves too seriously, either, as evidenced by the excellent Dead Man’s Underpants (“I’m walkin’ round in a dead man’s underpants/Second hand but I thought I’d take a chance“), which is a contender for the best song here.
The same goes for Dog Tranquiliser, about being hooked on animal medication, and sees Whalley unleash his inner death metal howl. There’s more guttural yelling on I Think My Neighbour Is Planning To Kill Me, one of several songs inspired by his observations of his local community during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Horse Meat is about their previously vegan tour manager falling off the healty eating wagon in quite spectacular fashion, while Deathbed Darren concerns the belated friendship Whalley forged with a hated neighbour.
There’s a serious message about what sparks domestic violence in Fireworks, while Old Mate Neck Tattoo reminds us never to judge a book by its cover, as “it’s always the guys with the neck tattoos/That hold you close and say ‘I love you'”.
Those People, another standout track, was inspired by a run-in with the law after a fall-out in a bar, and contains the wonderful lines: “And when you said you can’t call those people cunts/Well you can’t call those cunts ‘those people’“, and things come to a noisy close with second single Thought It Was Yoga But It Was Ketamine.
The Cup Of Pestilence is brimful of the sort of characters and crazy notions that long-time fans have come to expect from Frenzal Rhomb.
And although they’ve slowed down a little in recent years – after five albums in five years at the start of their career this makes it five in the last 20 – it’s good to still have them around and making albums this good. 8/10.
