I shared something from Deaf Wish sometime last year but I had mostly forgotten about them. I’m really a lame person at times because they are great and their new lp Pain does not fail to disappoint. Deaf Wish, hailing from the down under locale of Melbourne, released Pain just this past week on good ol’ Sub Pop records.

The album opens with a Killdozer slow piece that isn’t quite Killdozer heavy called The Whip. The song is solid but the climax is fantastic (as it should be). The album then builds with the old school styling punk hardcore bit Newness Again and the 90s Sonic Youth-esque They Know, before chilling briefly for the cleanup spot with Sunset’s Fool.

As you can tell, Deaf Wish doesn’t compromise their sound but they do mix up the heaviness, the tempo, and the vocal intensity. The next quartet of tunes goes diaphragm intense with Eyes Closed, gets all title-tracky with the angry (and then catchy) Pain, goes seriously Kim Gordon style epic with Sex Witch, before peaking with the rock’n roll anthem On featured in the video below.

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Dead Air reminds me of what we used to have on college radio stations before there was automation options. Sometimes I think actual dead air would be preferable. But I digress because Dead Air is a great song and introduced our finale Calypso quite well. Calypso slows things down and goes a bit more standard indie rock in a way that matters and makes me happy.

Basically, I cannot approve of Deaf Wish’s new album enough. I even broke my moratorium on buying new records and instantly bought this album upon completing this review. The marbled colored vinyl version of course. Damn, I suck.