Munitions

The Bendigo Hardcore legends, Abreact, are back with a brand-new album, Deceivers are coming, and they are just as hard-hitting and dirty as ever. This is the bands’ second full-length album in their 14 years of being together, forming in 2008, Abreact released their debut album Entities in 2012. A couple of singles and The Warehouse Sessions, which was recorded in Vancouver since this time but never a follow-up album, a band with the quality over quantity ideology, and goddamn, this is all killer and no filler!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Abreact, these guys are old-school hardcore, in music and ideology. They have a minimalist approach to their music and sound but don’t get me wrong, they sound massive for a 4 piece. With distorted dissonance coming from the guitar, a punchy as hell bass tone filling it out, and then put that on top of a seriously hard-hitting drummer, people wise that’s not much, instrumentally, well you take a listen for yourself, and lastly adding in the pure aggression and angst of Josh Cahill on vocals, you have an incredible mix for this band.

The work for this album started back in about 2020, Abreact released Paper Planes during the midst of the pandemic, and chatting to these guys during that year, they weren’t sure what exactly was going on, so they released it when they had the chance. This song and the other more recent single Honesty are the gateway songs into Abreacts world, they are easy to get into, chunky as hell and you will break your neck headbanging to these tunes. Paper Planes was also the first song/single to introduce Josh on vocals, this whole album is filled with some intense themes which he screams right into your face.

The previously mentioned songs are only the taster of what you will get on Deceivers…, stacked from start to finish with heavy, dirty riffs that sound like they are scraped off the gravel and then put into audio form with distortion, The Hate Resistance is a perfect example of this, pure dirt and grime! Abreact shows that something doesn’t have to be all fast riffs or technical to be dark and heavy, Occupy has a great mix of dynamics and is probably one of my, if not the favourite off the album, just wait for that song end, chaos ambience, brilliant!

Deceivers Are Coming is a strong and hard-hitting second album, they have taken everything that was done on Entities and just beaten the crap out of it, recorded that, and then sung over it! It takes no prisoners and shows you why they one of the best in business at what they do. These guys are always incredible live, and I can’t wait to see how much heavier these songs get with their own energy at a gig, make sure to get out and catch them when you can, you won’t regret it!

A new band surges forth on Black Winds from Melbourne, Victoria. Meet Munitions, a death metal band that hasn’t been in the scene for that long, but all the members on this EP are gig-hardened veterans from the likes of, Join the Amish, Nemesium, Desecrator, Vulture Culture, Blunt Shovel, and Embodied, just to name a few. Hopefully, you would have heard or seen some of those bands and know the kind of talent you will hear on this 4 Track EP.

With a blackened death metal sound that incorporates a hell of a lot of groove, this 4 track EP is short, sweet and straight to the knifepoint. Black Winds is completely stacked with neck-breaking guitar riffs that will have you headbanging from start to finish and then going for another round, it’s that catchy! There is an overlying darkness to the EP that just seeps from it, that seems to come from the great use of the chord progressions and riffs, it never sticks to the one thing for too long and the drum beats change it up to give the same riff a completely different feel.

Recorded, mixed and masted by Luke Walton at Danger Tones Studios, formerly Goatsound Studios, in Melbourne, I know some of you readers who know the local scene will have heard that name before. Munitions have done well to capture everything that I would imagine they bring to their live sound, the EP is definitely groove orientated above all else and I would be keen to see this being performed and a crowd moshing, going nuts to these songs. All the little intricacies and subtleties are kept in the mix, and you can appreciate the skill that is involved with playing these tracks. After going back and relistening a few times, I find more riffs or sounds that just add an eeriness to their songs, its great!

If you are wanting a new band to sink your teeth into Black Winds is the EP for you, dark, catchy, heavy, it ticks all the boxes when listening to it and it would come out great live, I would imagine from these guys. These guys clearly mean business, already hitting the ground hard with a recording and a string of live shows around the state. Munitions are making sure you know who they are, get out and catch them live.