Amyl and the Sniffers – Comfort To Me: Album Review

Amyl and the Sniffers are a ferocious young Melbourne Punk quartet who can slice through your head and explode it whilst making you feel hot, sweaty and high. Amyl nitrate poppers are a fast surge and fade. So is Amy Taylor the singer and probably chief lyricist.

They come from central suburb Balaclava. Melbourne being the mecca for all ranges of popular music in the Southern hemisphere.

This is the city that has experienced the harshest lockdowns in the world, after China and New Zealand. But it has had the longest. And shocking violence with tear gas and rubber bullets fired into protesters.

Taylor experienced this as an explosion of nervous energy that was doing her head in, under confinement. The resulting songs are the release when the pressure finally drops. Fast and furious. Angry and liberating.

Rest of the soft machines. Bryce Wilson drums, Dec Martens guitar and Fergus Romer bass.  

A great live mosh pit band experience. The debut album in 2019 won Best Rock Album in Australia.

Delivering the goods here are producer Dan Luscombe (Courtney Barnett) with mastering from Bernie Grundman (Michael Jackson, Prince, Dr Dre).

Guided By Angels. Taylor is a feisty young woman with the heart of a Beat Poet. The angels guide me/ Heavenly/ I’ve got plenty of energy/ It’s my currency/ Energy, heavenly. The guys take off with a Buzzcocks style of revving and strip it out to become a Johnny Ramone/ Pete Shelley hybrid monster.

Freaks to the Front. I’m bloody ugly/ Don’t touch me!/ My body’s all sweaty. The band shift to high gear and lock in to the Hardcore Punk riffs of early Black Flag. Taylor’s response to some sexist male baiting. Just ignore the cunt.

Choices. Two speeds, slow and then nasty. Borrows some of the riff progressions from the Sex Pistol’s Holiday’s in the Sun. The fury and speaking in tongues of the singer is similar to Lydon losing his shit as he goes over and under the Berlin Wall.

What manner of spirits bubble up under the pressures of physical and mental confinement.

This is a band that taps into the wild spirit of Rock’n’Roll. Security. Will you let me into your pub? / I’m not looking for trouble/ I’m just looking for love/ Will you let me in to your heart, heart. The guitar sound is when MC5 refashioned Chuck Berry riffs into Power Pop for their Back in the USA album.

Hertz. Declamatory vocals. Everything is asked for by yelling in your face, spittle and all. Sick of looking at the graffiti in the city. Here is the Sleaford Mod’s inspiration that Taylor claims. Wanting release and the pure air of the country. Throws in I want you to love me as the key to the riddle.

The group demonstrate their mastery of styles along with the necessary swing that underpins great Rock’n’Roll. No More Tears reworks the riffs and rhythms of Gun Club’s She’s Like Heroin To Me. A unique take on Blues and Punk with the sound fully meshed. The guitar is bottled lightning.

Taylor understands that the best way to achieve healthy immunity is to roll around in and enjoy the filth. The filth and the fury.

Maggot. Put your maggot to me/ You’re incredibly hot/ Underneath the red light. Lust, desire and a reference to Robert Johnson. Or Robert’s johnson. Gets to screech like Poly Styrene singing Oh Bondage, Up Yours.

They keep in touch with New Punk. Metallica riff drones on Capitol.

Don’t Fence Me In is less ferocious Power Pop until the guitarist gets a little wild with James Williamson Raw Power style molten speed.

Knifey is raw and confronting. Highlighted by the drop in volume and melodic tones. Steps right into the heart of darkness of sex and violence. All I ever wanted was to walk by the park/ Walk by the river/ Stop fucking me up. She sings with the foreboding nature that Jonathan Richman brought to his early work. But within a heartbeat the tables are turned. Out comes a knife/ Out comes my knifey/ This is how we get home nicely/ and now I’ll fuck you up.

Don’t Need a Cunt (Like You to Love Me). Metal Punk and the guys get to yell a bit.

Finish the album with Snakes. A final attempt to take on the Gun Clubs Fire of Love and a compression of Punk Blues. This is Australia. Snakes in the water/ In the grass/ In the shed/ In the chook-pen.

I know how I was raised/ I shed my skin/ Snake!

A heartwarmingly great Punk band for the obsessives. From the pressure cooker when it blows its stack.

Rev Orange Peel

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