After a heavy night you wake up and find yourself alone in the desert in front of a battered circus tent. You head inside and instantly alarm bells start going off. The crowd’s getting violent, the clowns are all ex cons and the drinks are blatantly being spiked. A band start hammering out a horribly discordant sound that is at the same time as catchy as hell. You get swept up in the chaos. As the band reach their peak you hear the terrifying rumbling as the nukes start to fall. The world ends with the weirdest party you’ve ever been to, fronted by the only band capable of hosting such an event. The band is Child Bite. This is Blow Off The Omens.
Child Bite have always existed in the space between old school punk rock and a horrifying violent assault, both massively entertaining and a genuinely terrifying experience. With this, their fifth album, not much has changed with their core sound. The music is still a glorious blend of off kilter guitar riffs and harmonies that shouldn’t work together but somehow do. They’ve brought in legendary engineer/producer Steve Albini who hasn’t tampered with the formula, but what he has done is made them sound massive. It’s like they are playing arenas, which considering how far from the mainstream the music is is hell of an achievement for both Albini and the band.
Above all the noise is Shawn Knight who still sounds like the coolest frontman in the world. Equal parts rock star, deranged ringmaster and end of the world preacher, his performance is a high point in and album filled with high points. Blow Off the Omens is a stunning creation and without question one of, if not the punk album of the year.
Blow Off the Omens is out now via Housecore Records and can be purchased here.
Words: Nathan Tyler
