‘Clocking in, no clocking out, No separation, no dividing line, Conveyor belt, production line, Converyor belt, you’re out of time, Animal, animal unnatural, Who’s the product?’ (Human Market Capital)

In our lifetimes, we have witnessed the repurposing of our civic life to optimising capital accumulation at the expense of the collective good.  Our democratic institutions have been hollowed to foreclose political contestation.  The governing ‘common sense’ has become immutable, the very form of our existence. Forever.

What Seems Forever Can Be Broken is a visceral challenge to this depoliticisation, a fierce recognition that hegemonies can seem eternal to the very moment before they collapse under their own hubris.  I had the good fortune to catch a searingly brilliant show from Vampire on their recent UK run where the Australian trio brought all the finest qualities of anarcho-punk – duelling semi shouted vocals, martial drumming, and darkly surging riffage – vibrantly to life.

The velocity of this live performance is vividly captured on this their debut album, which has been given a thoroughly welcome European pressing by Discos Enfermos and Phobia Records, having been first released last year by Perth’s Televised Suicide.  The highlights come thick and fast from the burly fury of Built For Decline to the bleakly melodic Nothing To Hold, by way of the raucously infectious The Zone.  Meanwhile, the contrasting vocals from each of the band members are layered in a ferocious rhythmic fusillade as they dissect an economic system that is quite literally grinding our collective futures to dust.