Australian-based guitar-driven music has for the better part of recent memory been quantified globally by jubilant, sun-dappled rhythms with motifs of desire and infatuation – DZ Deathrays make no such promise, nor will they ever. With over a decade long tenure to their name, the group have long cemented their space in contemporary Australian music as a necessity for doing just the opposite, marked by their ability to consistently churn out innovative call to arms riffage as visceral as they are frenetic.

Their mainstay status is marked by an ongoing tally of appearances across every career building pillar: arena tours supporting Foo Fighters and Biffy Clyro to name a few, multiple international appearances at SXSW, Reading and Leeds amongst headline tours, several Splendour In The Grass, Laneway and Falls Festivals, and ARIA Awards is testament to that fact. From every house party that took them to 1000+ capacity venues and beyond, Shane Parsons, Simon Ridley, and more recently joined by Lachlan Ewbank, have never let go of their core objective in doing it because they can.

It’s this ethos, far from the perspective of egoism or fame-driven motivation, but rather their core value to ‘do’, ‘make’, ‘challenge’ and ‘enjoy’ that has stuck with DZ Deathrays at every step. A creative integrity and ambition that maintains their place at the forefront of the national punk frontier with a hungry, enduring and rampant fanbase all these years later. This prevails on their sixth studio album R.I.F.F., arguably their most experimental, enhanced and immediately resonant record yet. Across, DZ spark that same playful joy and anarchy of the rock that doting parents vouch to instill in their children’s musical vernacular: ACDC, INXS, Silverchair, Tame Impala and more.

Words by Maia Bilyk