Dead City Ruins Releases Shockingly Great Rock Album
"Shockwave" is a triumphant heavy rock release from the land down under.
Thanks for spending part of your day with Michael’s Record Collection, and welcome new readers! It was a good week on the subscription front, and I’m not sure if that was the product of last week’s issue featuring legendary artist Arthur Brown, a sudden uptick in word of mouth, or some other reason. Regardless of why, I’m glad you’re here.
This week, I went all the way to Australia (OK, I did it via Zoom) to talk about another great new album. This week’s offering comes from Aussie rockers Dead City Ruins. I will admit I wasn’t familiar with their work until the promo tracks for their new album, Shockwave, hit my inbox. I was blown away by what I heard. I spoke with founding member and guitarist Tommy Cain about it and this week’s issue is the product of that discussion.
Let’s get to that story.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned since starting this newsletter and the accompanying podcast and video channel, it’s that rock music is certainly not dead. It’s not always as easy to find in the United States, since modern radio largely ignores the genre (at least in the U.S., anyway), and MTV has forsaken music in favor of reality shows.
But the influence of so many great U.S. bands is being picked up in other parts of the world. If you are willing to dig a little and curate a good network of outlets that align with your tastes, you can find plenty of great new rock and roll being released all over the world. That includes Australia’s Dead City Ruins. This five-piece outfit has released its best work yet with Shockwave, an album released by AFM Records just a few weeks ago on Sept. 16.
Comprised of founding guitarist Tommy Cain, guitarist Sean Blanchard, bassist Thomas Murphy, drummer Nick Trajanovski, and new singer Steve Welsh, the quintet has crafted a modern rock masterpiece that blends 1990s grunge with arena rock bombast and grimy blues-based riffs into an electric smorgasbord of aural delights.
Cain’s guitar style is his own, although he is influenced by much of what he likes. He grew up on Pearl Jam, Nirvana’s Nevermind album, Alice in Chains, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, and other heavy rock acts of the 1990s.
“I'd say it's it's got everything that you would ever hear if you were into rock and roll, and wanted to hear something that was powerful and meaningful,” Cain said of Dead City Ruins’ music. “Anything that was desirable in the formation of that early ‘90s, all the way to the 2000s, rock and roll style.”
The band’s music is vivid and bursting with energy on Shockwave. Some of that is simply down to writing and recording 12 great songs, but what makes this the best of the Dead City Ruins catalog for me is the combination of Welsh’s talents as a singer and the production of Gene Freeman (a.k.a. “Machine”), who has previously worked with the likes of Lamb of God, Clutch, Fall Out Boy, King Crimson, and White Zombie.
“Machine was the guy that we had in mind since 2015,” Cain said. “So, we had Skyped him years ago, talked about doing an album. He was like, ‘Yeah, you know, that'd be really fun.’”
After the band hired Welsh as the new lead vocalist, Dead City Ruins reached back out to Freeman about producing. He flew to Melbourne to produce the album that became Shockwave.”
“We were really respectful of his work in the past. We really loved everything that he had done and achieved as a producer,” Cain said of Machine. “We sent all the pre-production to him. He was really happy with it, and he wanted to do it.”
The Shockwave album was recorded just before the pandemic lockdown but has only finally gotten its long-awaited release. It’s a group effort with the band members often bringing pieces in and building them out until they turn into a finished song.
“Usually what happens is that Sean and I will come up with a riff,” Cain said of the band’s writing process. “And we just bounce ideas straightaway off that riff and generate a song. It is a collaboration between Sean, myself, and Steve-o with the working of the songs.”
Welsh wrote the lyrics and came up with the vocal melody lines to best showcase his voice.
The highlights on Shockwave are many, and they start immediately, with the anthemic “Preacher,” one of the album’s singles. Sure to be a great crowd-participation number at festivals and other live shows, the song was crafted to get the audience amped up and it works on that level quite well. The Murphy/Trajanovski partnership drives it forward with memorable, standout guitar riffs and killer soloing.
“When we watch bands or listen to bands, something that engages our attention is like big intros, big ‘Heys!’, big collaborative vocals. That was something we wanted to achieve and we liked doing,” Cain said. “A lot of the songs were based around this crowd interaction as opposed to, ‘Let's write it for ourselves,’ because in a lot of ways, writing for yourself is fun, but it's not as fun as when you're writing a song for the crowd as well, and everyone gets it, and you can all participate.”
“Vision” has an infectious groove that sticks in the brain in the best way. “Madness” is a bit more middling in tempo but with sort of a hypnotic Zeppelin-meets-grunge kind of vibe to it.
Another one of my favorites — possibly my top song — from the record is “Speed Machine,” a breathless, relentless, driving song urged forward at the insistence of Trajanovski and Murphy with an excellent performance by Welsh and a stunning dual guitar attack with Cain and Blanchard.
“It brings out everyone's talents,” Cain said about the song. “And I'm going to say, you know, Sean was behind writing the majority of that song and he nailed it — Sean and Steve-o. It was like that big, macho, heavy guitar intro with those macho drums. Those guys just nailed it. It’s predominantly just a fast, in-your-face, hard-hitting song.”
“Rain” is sort of an Alice in Chains-meets-the Black Crowes song with some southern jangle guitar flavor adding a nice twist on Welsh’s beloved grunge stylings. Welsh was the driving force behind the song, which was obviously heavily influenced by Alice in Chains, but Dead City Ruins put their own spin on it.
“Dog on a Leash” started as a bit of a lark but grew into another great concert hall / festival song with its “Whoooaaaaaahs” at the beginning and in the chorus. There’s a little Hagar-era Van Halen vibe about halfway through it, with some conversation going on under a quieter bit.
“That was like a joke song to begin with. It was this guitar, bluesy, riff that I came up with and everyone jumped on board with it,” Cain said. “That’s Dead City Ruins in a nutshell, I guess. Like, ‘Let’s make some sort of Eddie Van Halen joke guitar start into a fun, happy-time song.’ Once again, we wrote it for ourselves and for the crowd.”
“This Side of the Dirt” is another energetic number and that is immediately contrasted by the gritty, grimy, filthy, mid-tempo blues rocker, “Drifter.” This one had a heavy Slash’s Snakepit influence, according to Cain.
“I’m also a massive Slash fan. I listen to a lot of Slash’s Snakepit, and I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do a song like that,’” Cain said.
We’ve all heard of the infamous deadly spiders that live in Australia, so when Dead City Ruins has a song called “Spiders,” you take notice. Welsh perfectly mimics the sound of the late Layne Staley of Alice in Chains in the chorus of this song on the line “spiders are never dead.” The Staley influence is evident throughout the album but Welsh doesn’t overdo it. He generally just nails it for a moment and then goes back into his more natural distinctive voice.
“End of the Line” is a catchy, sing-along rocker with a driving beat from Trajanovski — and I can’t speak highly enough about how good his drum sound is on this, his second record with the band — and more standout guitar work. “Blood Moon” has a little bit of everything — big, soaring backing vocals; growling guitar; a heavy bottom end, and a final note that’ll have your teeth rattling if you’re playing it loud.
The album ends with the energy level just as high as how it opened on closing song “The Sorcerer.” I don’t know if it’s intentional, but I hear a little bit of Rainbow/Deep Purple influence in this one and there are some cool special effects thrown in. Welsh’s vocal performance on the closing track is one of my favorites he put down on the record, which is quite a statement, considering his excellence throughout.
Despite the heavy grunge and Guns N’ Roses/Slash influence, Shockwave manages to be far less sullen and angry in tone than the music of that era. It’s like the party rock of the 1980s diluted the high-proof angst of the 1990s music that Dead City Ruins grew up on. Whether that’s just a product of being Australian or simply wanting the music to be fun for both themselves and the audience, it just works for me in a way that the big grunge bands never consistently did.
Hopefully, Shockwave will find a toehold in the U.S. and other parts of the world. It’s a fantastic record that’s worth being in the collection of any fan of hard rock — especially 1990s rock — and it’s just over 42 minutes of fun, kick-ass rock music.
Tracklist:
Preacher
Vision
Madness
Speed Machine
Rain
Dog on a Leash
This Side of the Dirt
Drifter
Spiders
End of the Line
Blood Moon
The Sorcerer
To find out more about Dead City Ruins, visit the band’s website. You can buy Shockwave on CD or vinyl directly from the AFM Records online shop or you can get it from that giant, faceless corporation that rhymes with lamb-a-zon.
For my entire discussion with Tommy Cain of Dead City Ruins, check out the video below or catch it on Episode 83 of the Michael’s Record Collection podcast (with brief snippets from the album), available now virtually everywhere you can get podcasts. In addition to the Shockwave album, Tommy discussed the history of the band, his musical beginnings, the band’s touring habits, the video for “The Sorcerer,” and more.
Thanks again for your time. Please consider sharing this issue of the newsletter with the first button below, or Michael’s Record Collection (in general) with the second. And be sure to check out the podcast version of MRC at your favorite podcast dispensary. I invite you to visit michaelsrecordcollection.com and my Patreon site at patreon.com/michaelsrecordcollection to find out how you can support independent writing and podcasting for as little as $2 per month (that’s only 50 cents per week!).