The Amity Affliction ‘House Of Cards’ era has barely had time to settle in, and already the band are taking it somewhere unexpected, locking in a one off headline show at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt on December 12th.
Yeah, that Opera House.
The announcement lands just days after the release of The Amity Affliction ninth studio album ‘House Of Cards’, which was released on April 24th and signals a shift in both sound and lineup, with new clean vocalist Jonny Reeves stepping into the fold.
Opera House, One Night Only
The Opera House Forecourt show feels like a statement, a reminder of how far the band have pushed from those early records to now.
Pre-sale tickets kick off tomorrow, April 29th at 10am AEST, with general sale starting Friday, May 1st at 11am AEST.
A Record That Cuts Close
‘House Of Cards’ doesn’t mess around with subtlety, Joel Birch has always been direct, but this record feels even more stripped back emotionally, digging into grief, addiction, religion and the long shadow of childhood.
“…If it isn’t about my mother specifically, it is about things that I have experienced that are directly tied to my experience growing up and where that has landed me now. ‘Break These Chains’ is directly tied to that and the confusion I felt when dealing with my mother dying and all the crazy sh*t she had at her house, ‘Speaking In Tongues’ is about the hypocrisy of my mother sending me off to church constantly throughout my life and my very negative experiences within said church, ‘Afterlife’ is me musing on my lack of belief that there is an afterlife, ‘Reap What You Sow’ follows on from there in its own way and ‘Eternal War’ is the closer that explains how I find myself feeling a lot of the time.
There is a line in there “the fool is blind the hand is dealt” which I wrote about my consistent hope that one day my mother would change, written in the context of a gambling addict chasing the perfect hand.”
It’s heavy, even by Amity standards, but it never feels performative.
The Amity Affliction ‘House Of Cards’ Track Listing
- Vida Nueva
- Kickboxer
- House Of Cards
- Heaven Sent
- Bleed
- Break These Chains
- Beso De La Muerte
- Swan Dive
- Speaking In Tongues
- Afterlife
- Reap What You Sow
- Eternal War
Pick up your copy here.
New Blood, Same Weight
Reeves’ addition shifts the band’s dynamic in a subtle but noticeable way, his clean vocals cut cleaner and sit differently against Birch’s delivery, giving tracks like ‘Break These Chains’ and ‘Swan Dive’ more space without dulling the impact.
Then there’s ‘Kickboxer’, a track born from a late night text and a Jean-Claude Van Damme reference.
“The way this song came about is very funny: Dan was watching Kickboxer on the bus and there is a line in the movie where Van Damme says “It’s good stuff, what is this?” and the answer is “translated, kiss of death.” Dan sent me a text later that night… “Hey can you write a song with Kiss of Death in it?”
When he asks things like this it’s always because he has had a song come to him and knows exactly how he wants it to sound before it’s written. I wrote that song in my bunk on tour, as I do many others, and it’s just a song expressing my distaste for the way I grew up having people pray for me, or lay hands on me to pray, and how I’m not waiting on some divine being to come and save me from any situation I am in.”
The Amity Affliction ‘Kickboxer’ video
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