The Duke of Randwick “I'd Never”

Like a psychedelic, grungy swirl that gets you deep deep inside, The Duke of Randwick brings something extraordinary and horrifying into your ears. “I’d Never…” drips the noisy, darkly transparent aesthetic of grunge, spiraling down a psychedelic techno abyss, in which contemporary sensation and dark pop’s urban coolness lurk with allure. “I’d Never…” is bold and sonically liberating.

Melodies shape through noise, painting a gutting scene of an internal struggle between good and evil. It’s a thrilling gaze into the abyss, and at one point, it glares back at you, eerie, spine-tingling. The three-piece band crafts a blustery hollowness in contrast with noise-infused sharpness, while at the same time, it’s emotionally heightened and gut-wrenching. Like hearing the process of someone tearing the devil from its body and seeing it real for the first time. It’s drastic and stunning.

“I’d Never…” begins with a good amount of horror meeting the mischievous snarl of a bass. The drumming feels like the counting of a clock, an alarming reminder, or the rite of passage. It’s hypnotic and spine-tingling. The lead vocal seems to come from another realm. It’s trapped in a way and it seeks to be freed. The intense, hard-hitting combination of the voice, the bass, the guitar, and the drum forms a turmoil, like swirling along a tornado, surreality in a daze.

Then all of a sudden, the energy changed, the temperature drops. Trembling strings signal the danger and threat of something yet to meet the eyes as it intensifies. From the fierce, grunge hellfire, “I’d Never…” drops straight into the soundtrack of a black-and-white horror film. It’s unexpected. You can feel the back of your head getting numb and all the hairs standing up. It gives you the creeps, and that alone is very rare to experience in a song. With no definitive genre for The Duke of Randwick’s latest release, horror seems very fitting.