Album Review

Die! Die! Die! – FORM

• 7th Apr 2011

Undoubtedly THE rock album of 2011 thus far, or at the very least a firm contender for the title, FORM is Die! Die! Die!’s third offering, and by great lengths their biggest sounding. It’s a harsh, high-octane garage punk insanity ride, opening with the interminably pounding ‘Caseman’, it rolls into ‘HowYe’’s massive choruses via an insane ‘Lil Ships’. It’s an imposing opening; raw, unremitting and enthralling.

From there and yet more substance from ‘We Build Our Own Oppressors’ which collides the bands first two records together in one track of bursting melody and heavy riffs. It’s clear from ‘…Oppressors’ and even more so from album highlight ‘Wasted Lands’ that the current sound of New Zealand is a sharp, precise din that puts so much care into its melody that the accompanying fuzz and buzz from associated guitars is lost over to the overall beauty of the noise. If the Naked And Famous are the biggest thing in New Zealand pop, Die! Die! Die! are unquestionably the biggest thing in New Zealand rock. Heck, this album’s even been nominated for the same Taite Music prize in their native land.

Fans of big sounding, honest punk-rock please take note, as Die! Die! Die! are definitely here to stay. Not just that, they’re getting better with each album, and with FORM seem now to be earmarked for great things.

5/5