It appears that thrashed out rockers DZ Deathrays have been busy bees during the recent period of Unpleasantness, sharing news today that work on their eagerly awaited fifth album has been completed, allowing the band to slap a release date on Positive Rising: Part 2, that being Friday, 9th July 2021.
To punctuate the news further, the trio have sounded off the first warning shot from the release in the form of stadium anthem-in waiting, ‘Fired Up’. Steeped in stirring melody, booming and thrilling in it’s scope, ‘Fired Up’ is nothing short of just what the doctor ordered for fans struggling to shake off any remaining atrophy from nearly a year indoors.
During the Positive Rising: Part 2 sessions, ‘Fired Up’ became somewhat a labour of love, according to the band, who detailed a track that simply wouldn’t find its footing, despite around 15 attempts to piece it together. “Basically,” the band explain, “at some point Shane (Parsons) just turned ‘Fired Up’ into a big stadium-rocking-Bruce Springsteen-style-anthem and I guess that’s when we knew what we were dealing with.”
Following on from its older sibling, Part 1, released in 2019 to thunderous critical acclaim, Part 2 has some big shoes to fill. Designed to be the spiritual sequel, rather than the clinical follow-up, Part 2 is set to complement and balance its predecessor, in all ways from the sound to the stories to the album art. We can also see from the announcement that the record will feature Ecca Vandal, like we needed further reason to get excited.
This morning, ‘Fired Up’ also received the official video treatment, copping a clip from the mind of Thomas Rawle that’s equal parts trippy, retro and apocalyptic, a further glimpse into some of the stories and ideas set to populate the forthcoming album.