Robot Child – “One More War”
One More War is the genre hopping debut from Melbourne quintet Robot Child.
Spawning from the initial inspiration of vocalist Jeff Wortman and guitarist Waleed Aly, it is a confident and diverse album that provides its fair share of suprises along the way.
First single ‘Ignition‘ and follow up track ‘Crucifixation‘ boast riff heavy anthemic choruses and benefit from an unexpected and almost classical keyboard touch from Dave Hartley.
After the epic nature of these early moments Robot Child then unveil another dimension as they seamlessly slide into the laidback groove of ‘Running Through My Head‘ and the infectious ‘Blissfully Unaware‘, both tunes that put aside the meatier guitars for a poppier feel, albeit one punctuated by several unpredictable changes.
It is the latter half of the album where some of the suprising little gems lay waiting. It is almost as if the band had put the bigger sounding more accessable tracks up front to lure us into complacency before unleashing some delightful weirdness. The jazzy ‘Parade‘ will catch most off guard upon first listen and stands out as one of the album highlights. ‘Sandpit‘ is schitzophrenic and a tad unsettling as is ‘Space‘, a song that could best be described as lounge/metal and emerges as my personal favourite. Rounding off this impressive musical journey is the sparse ambience of ‘Epilogue‘, further evidence that Robot Child has multiple strings to their bow.
Whilst One More War stands up as a solid debut release from start to finish, it truly does ascend a notch or two towards the back end, encouraging the listener to stay on for the duration of the ride. Perhaps the more experimental nature of this part of the record is an indicator that boundaries will be pushed even further in future releases.
Buy One More War on iTunes here.
He can also be found clinging to his youth on a skateboard or wandering aimlessly through the bush.
- The Beards @ The Metro, 2nd July ’16 - July 8, 2016
- Parkway Drive @ Wollongong Uni, 25th June ’16 - July 1, 2016
- Basement @ The Factory, 27th May ’16 - June 3, 2016
