Where? Melbourne (Australia) Who? Karina Utomo, Ash Pegram, Matt Weston, Damian Coward For fans of: Tragedy, His Hero His Gone, NoMeansNo
Australia has been spitting awesome band after awesome band for quite a while now – Lo!, The Drones, Courtney Barnett, Ben Frost, Woods of Desolation, Portal, etc. One of the latest to come from down under (don’t be pretending to be too cool for Men At Work) are the hardcore quartet High Tension, which includes in its ranks ex-members of Young & Restless, The Nation Blue, Like Electrocution, and Heirs (do yourself a favor and go listen to the masterpiece that’s Fowl).
It all started with the huge debut single “High Risk Rewards” back in 2012. The success of the single was soon followed with an EP and their debut album. Three years later and they’re releasing their second album, Bully, and putting their name along with some of the best hardcore bands of today. It has everything that we could ask for: heavy doses of violence, solid song structures, a fair amount of melody, and a rawness that it’s too honest and real to be faked. Vocalist Karina Utomo is a fucking maniac and song after song we are drawn into a performance and presence out of this world. “Punk princess”? Sure, like Xena!