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THE BROOD: Queen Pest

The Brood’s five members are all in other bands, yet their music doesn’t really sound like any of those other bands (Bannerman, Rum Coves, Sleepers Union and Drill). Their debut is raw, dirty, fuzzy garage punk, and it’s good stuff. The sound harks back to the early days of punk, leaning more to the Ramones than the English sound. As you’d expect from a garage punk outfit the sound has a lo-fi quality, but that only adds to the atmosphere and credibility of the album, which has a very ‘live’ roughness to it. Recorded over two days at Kog Studios and mixed by Mark Petersen (Straitjacket Fits), the band also had a heavy hand in the production. Opening track Riddle House is one of the strongest with its driving, buzzy intro, pulsating basslines and catchy vocals. The rest of the album doesn’t differ much from this formula, but I never felt like it was just more of the same. Like the best punk albums, this is short, sharp and to the point – and for this listener, over too soon.