The PinheadsIs This Real

Before we have the chance to miss them, The Pinheads will return from the studio full handed and ready for action come the 24rd of May, when the infamous outfit will release their second album, Is This Real.

MORE: LEGACY: BLINK-182: Enema Of The State // BRING ME THE HORIZON: First Love Australian Tour REVIEWS: BAD RELIGION: Age Of Unreason // THE DAMNED THINGS: High Crimes // DIAMOND CONSTRUCT: Diamond Construct

As real as ever, this is. Filled with diverse tracks that will again break any genre constraints, The Pinheads have turned yet another corner into the labyrinth of their niche style of avant-garde, garage, punk, art rock … and roll? Don’t even try to label them as more than The Pinheads.

A culmination of distorted guitars and relentless verses shake us into their album with Pure Hate, an 8.22 minute opener that sets the tone of what’s not necessarily to follow as the eventual choruses seep through the airwaves.

Come and Feel It Now through a variation of reverberation and stately verses that echo between bangin’ drum patterns and a gradual guitar solo intertwine through a dark and narrow track.

Their use of instrumentation and lyricism has adapted in a new variety, proving that Is This Real will give us a new insight into their music and their ability to blow our minds.

The Pinheads take us on a whimsical exhibition through the album which is sometimes lead by crunchy, finger-pickin’ songs, or the knee-jerking, foot stomping rhythm section. Whichever beat we choose to follow, they’ve produced tracks that take us through the musical eras of time. One could be transported way back to Woodstock, or taken straight back to that yard party you went to last weekend; it’s all dependent on when and where you hit ‘play’.

The single, Is This Real presents us with a Saudade—a Portuguese word meaning a state of melancholic longing. Motivated through the interlude’s harmonica, a strong sense of nostalgia washes out through the closing lyrics.

Outro brings us somewhat back to the start with a transgressive wave of distorted onomatopoeia, closing the album in a full circle. While it might be an album that’s less conducive than their previous release, I Wanna Be A Girl, it’s still an album that represents who The Pinheads are, and what they’re about. Their use of instrumentation and lyricism has adapted in a new variety, proving that Is This Real? will give us a new insight into their music and their ability to blow our minds.

STANDOUT TRACKS: For A While, No Time, Satisfied
STICK THIS NEXT TO: The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers