Drenge – Strange Creatures

Label: Infectious Records
Released: 22nd February 2019
Rating: ★★★★

While their first two albums have thrived on their raw energy, Drenge’s latest offering has a tinge of being polished and neatened up around the edges. All of which helps make those rage kicks hit that bit harder, tearing the paper from the walls with reckless abandon and not a care for their security deposit.

That rampant physicality and drive that has seen Drenge blow doors right through across the land remain an ever-present. Chaos reigns supreme in the power of the drums and the spiky edged riffs. There’s definitely a more mature edge to the music – and as the band themselves previously pointed out they’ve even started writing things like choruses.

Brothers Eoin and Rory Loveless have developed their music-making skills dramatically since their 2013 debut LP and the composure they show on this intrinsically dark album highlights that they’re an outfit to be taken seriously.

This is a record for those nocturnal dwellers who lurk in the shadows, delving into the outer reaches in search of sounds that send shivers down the spine and start eyes rolling slowly back into the skull. Hints of old school blues do nothing but add to their songwriting credentials.

Drenge have an unbridled ability to curate grunge with an anthemic tilt, and there are few bands able to conjure the atmospheres they regularly produce. This is surely the next step forward though as they’ve produced a deeply psychological release that takes no prisoners.

Oh, and ‘Autonomy’ is a stone-cold banger.

Ciaran Steward