With a cry of “freaks front!”, Australia’s Amyl and the Sniffers began their international breakout with the 2021 release. comfort for me. The second album arrived when more than a year of pent-up energy was about to explode, and the band's loud call for unity and resilience was well heard and much needed. Now, the band is back with cartoon darknessonce again pushing back despair with a fiery punk light that makes them shine in the ultimate Consequence Cover story: Amyl and the trackers: playing with pain.
It's too simple to dismiss a punk band appearing on the album cover, urinating on the cover of the lead single, and surrounding themselves with naked people in the video for a song called “Jerkin” as pure shock value. While there's certainly a valuable surprise in the packaging, Amyl and the Sniffers aren't rebels for rebel's sake. Like many millennials/Gen Z, they are angry, scared, and screaming for relief.
This urgency drives both the title of cartoon darkness and our 14th cover story. In conversation with features editor Wren Graves, the Melbourne group explores the concepts and emotions that fueled their latest album: a sense of a foreboding future that's not yet fully colored. They talk about the anger they bring to their music while also striving, as singer Amy Taylor says, “to be full of curiosity and wonder instead of fear.”
This is what it means to overcome pain: to understand that yes, we are suffering, but yes, we can move forward. The future is a distorted sketch, and approaching it with the distorted sounds of straight punk can help fend off the darkness. It can also wreak havoc on your vocal cords, as Taylor will attest, but when the world tries to muffle you, sometimes you just have to scream.
Amyl and the Sniffers shout loud and clear, but it is a war cry, a welcome rage. It's the kind of fury that creates catharsis, urging listeners to let fear and anger melt into something much more liberating: fun.
Answer his call by reading the Consequence Cover article Amyl and the trackers: playing with pain now. Fans in the UK and EU will then be able to catch the band on their upcoming November tour dates by purchasing tickets. here.
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