![News Added Jul 28, 2016 Sydney-based hardcore punks Totally Unicorn are set to release their new album, Dream Life, on July 29th. Given the quintet's established relationship of shirt-removing, chaotic live performances, the album naturally steers towards a certain side — turbo metal thrashing with only momentary pauses for despairing doom collapses (presumably practical required […]](https://hasitleaked.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/unnamed-7-320x320.jpg "Totally Unicorn : Dream Life")
Sydney-based hardcore punks Totally Unicorn are set to release their new album, Dream Life, on July 29th.
Given the quintet's established relationship of shirt-removing, chaotic live performances, the album naturally steers towards a certain side — turbo metal thrashing with only momentary pauses for despairing doom collapses (presumably practical required seconds for frontman Drew Gardner to climb a speaker stack, untangle his custom 15 metre microphone lead).
Yet, beyond the immediately dramatic, dire consequences displayed on Dream Life, there are more than a few diversions towards surprise sides of their sound. There's a clattering acoustic break on "You Smell Like a Trophy" — which leads spectacularly into the band's stadium rock, firework-shooting moment — destroying the song's initial tense fragility. Elsewhere, slithers of personal reflection sneak between the more aggressive chest-thumps, as on frantic album intro "Old Cute and Purified", where Gardener's signature strained, anxiety-provoking vocals are split open by succinct, plainspoken one-liners ("it's not the best, it's not the worst").
At the other end of the spectrum, there's almost-ballad "Part Time Model", led by a vocal contribution from Robert Smith of California's Heavy Heavy Low Low. A gloomy, heavy-plodding crumble that bizarrely wouldn't sound much out of place in the reflective, post-apocalyptic world of Melbourne band Devastations. Not the album's solitary guest either, with High Tension's Karina Utomo, the album's producer, Tim Carr, and even former member Tim McMahon also contributing, showcasing the band's willingness to destroy the often-restraining mould of hardcore rock and helping create their most eclectically adventurous album yet.
