- Recent times has seen dinky little Brisbane pull itself together and finally make good on some of those sensual promises of glory it's been flirting with... it seems like, forever! Despite regressing politically, musically Brisbane has been undergoing a modern day renaissance of sorts, a coming out party which very few people outside of the glorious river city will ever understand.

Though definitely no bunch of Da Vincis, Brisbane's own Occults have been bodysurfing the wave, the dark and brooding group reminiscent of now semi-defunct Brisbane swamp lords, Slug Guts, albeit in an increasingly uptempo capacity.

After a year of chugging away like Satan's little minions, Occults have deemed now to be the time to immortalise their souls on wax, the group taking their sweet time to give the people their legit and very necessary dose of downer, gloom rock.

Their debut self-titled EP starts off with a bang, lead cut 'Soiled Babies' is as joyously unsettling as it sounds, the track wasting little time in kicking off and taking absolutely no prisoners: that opening thunderous bass line quickly morphes into a wall of gothish brutality.

'Sex After Death' lets wailing guitar and muted harmonising take centre stage, the song staggering along with a fiercely drunken swagger. The simplistic drumming holds the chaos together by a thread; and the ferocious and driving 'I Was Wrong' is by no means an apology but it'll have to do.

Final fling 'Failures' might be the group's crowning achievement so far: they holding nothing back. Bass hound Sam McKenzie gives his most powerful vocal performance to date, the song and EP hitting their peak before slithering back into the abyss they crawled out of.

Though there's a definite sinister presence surrounding the sobering sonic nature of Occult's swampy music, although there's little real evidence linking Brisbane's own Occults to the actual occult, other than their penchant for necrophilia and soiled children. However that finally balances out, Occults self-titled EP is a welcomed and moody little treat, the four tracks on display here the perfect summarisation of the sound that emenates as they dabble through the dark arts.

- Jay Edwards.