Terminals - Antiseptic CD

The Terminals are the best rock band New Zealand has ever produced.
Period. I know there’s heavy competition, but believe it. No group has
lasted over three decades and maintained intensity, structure and mood
better than the core team of Steven Cogle and Peter Stapleton. Cogle’s
voice is a quavering incantation of deep spell-casting, throwing more
dirt onto the already gritty guitar squalls. Stapleton’s rhythm
section propels songs through lightning charges of tempo and energy.
Age has only embedded The Terminals’ mastery to deeper sonic realms.
The ten years between their last album, Last Days of the Sun, and the
release of Antiseptic, whip by in a flash when you play these records
next to each other. The Terminals never disappoint, they never relent.

Antiseptic does mark some changes, however. Longtime guitarist Brian
Crook now lives in the California desert, so Nicole Moffat has
replaced him, providing violin and vocals. Mick El Borado thickens the
atmosphere with his improvisational keyboard playing. A group that has

stayed together so long knows instinctively where a song can go,

although it is often the maverick pieces – ones that at first don’t
seem to belong -- that end up on the records. Their work together has
become only more sagacious, and The Terminals don’t waste an intended
or improvised note. Antiseptic is a peerless rock album, unless you
can think of another group who’ve stayed as heavy, as broke, and
consistent for this long.