Label: Pee Records

Verdict: Driven Fear return with a record that is more sincere, more passionate and more intense than ever before.  8/10.

All the way back in 2009 when I first starting writing for News Hit, the first review that I everwrote for the website was Damn The Empire’s ...With Trends Like These, a record produced by Adelaide-based indie Pee Records.  Three years later when I am writing what is most likely the final music review that will ever be uploaded onto Newshit, it is only fitting that it too is a Pee Records release.

In the modern music industry, the advent of pro-tools, auto-tune and numerous other digital aids means that it is possible to fake a lot of things.  It is possible to fake a strong singing voice.  It is possible to fake a perfectly pitched guitar solo.  The one thing that it is still impossible to fake, however, is passion.

And if there is one thing that Driven Fear have in spades, it is passion.  While their last EP Society’s Finest? dripped with a sense of depressed sarcasm bordering on nihilism, their debut album finds the band in a different place altogether; their world is still burning, but change is possible if we have the courage to do so.

Opening with the furious rallying call of “Sense to the Senseless”, this is a record that never lets up on the intensity from start to finish.  Blending the hardcore attack of records like Songs To Fan The Flames Of Discontent by Refused with a lyrical desperation reminiscent of Ballads From The Revolution by Good Riddance, this is music which is both invigorating and timely.

Instrumentally, Driven Fear have improved significantly since their last release.  While Society’s Finest? was a breath taking displaying in pulverising hardcore, Contender features both a more precise punk rock attack and a greater focus upon dynamics and melody.  Ironically, the fact that the group now spend less time simply playing as hard as possible only serves to make the release as a whole all the more intense; the slight musical reprieves offered in tracks like “Into Submission” and “The Hunt” give the listener a moment to catch their breath, before diving headfirst back into a raging punk track like “Pages” and “Like The Plague”. 

Top honours however must go to “March 29^th”, a song which was already featured on Driven Fear’s split EP with Mouthful of Air.  While heavy handed in its approach, the track features a great usage of dynamic variation, as well as a surprisingly melodic and memorable chorus.

With Contender, Driven Fear have definitely delivered on the promise offered by their last two EPs.  While the group are still able to conjure up the same sorts of blistering hardcore featured prominently on Society’s Finest?, their musical growth and increasing utilisation of dynamics have only made their sound stronger and more ferocious.

And hey, I’m not even usually that much of a fan of hardcore, so it’s got to be good doesn’t it?