THE LIVING END

Six albums. Each one, a milestone: The time we thought we were indestructible. The time we lit a fire under the establishment. The time we wondered if it was all worth it. No.6, if we put it under the scalpel, is the album that hunts down the truth, asks the big questions and demands answers. THE ENDING IS JUST THE BEGINNING REPEATING is The Living End’s most honest album yet. Chris Cheney, Scott Owen and Andy Strachan have always forged their own path, irrespective of passing fads, haircuts, and any vogue for keytar-wielding debutantes. Their songs require of the listener a social conscience and mosh pit stamina, and give in return a visceral experience that’s flawlessly executed. It’s this attitude that’s earned the band four platinum and one gold albums. Winding up the tour cycle that followed 2008’s WHITE NOISE, Cheney went to New York to buckle down and write, before the songs were jammed out organically in a South Melbourne rehearsal room. Finally the demos were taken to 301 Studios in Byron Bay and Chris’s studio Red Door Sounds in Collingwood for a reworking with producer Nick DiDia — who has put the Midas touch on records by The Living End-approved Bruce Springsteen and Rage Against the Machine — imported especially for the occasion from Atlanta. Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Powderfinger, AC/DC) took the reigns as mixer. The results are astonishing.