‘Will this rolling tide crash over me again? Am I helping? I can’t seem to find, never reaching the surface in time, But in the bleak light of day, We will be far from here’ (The Surface)

The resonant bass and the shimmering, almost strummed rhythm guitar cautiously stalk one another.  The catchily propulsive drums snap into action, an infectiously crystalline lead surges.  Gothically drawled, baritone vocals swell into view, bombast seduced by sorrow.  Further heft is leant by slabs of glacial synth as the soaring chorus detonates.  Each element is adroitly layered as the track builds to a fiercely cathartic crescendo.  The Face That I Stood Behind is, perhaps, the perfect introduction to the bleakly evocative world of Body Maintenance.

Post-punk has come to be something of a promiscuous term.  However, the Melbourne band readily elicit thoughts of the pioneering bands of early 1980s’ England.  Yet these are thoughts also suffused with the reanimating vigour of the band’s own singular, darkly contemporary take on this their second full-length, and follow-up to 2023’s Beside You.  As a forlorn atmosphere of swirling ambiguity and dissolving hope is poignantly evoked, highlights follow in quick succession from the hazily dreamy ‘Far from here’ backing of vocals of The Surface to the contagiously driving melody that defines Symphony Of Bliss, before the assertive close of The Golden Fire.