With everything that’s happened since, it feels like a lifetime ago that Australia was devastated by the bushfires that tore through – and beyond – our east coast last summer.
But for the communities most heavily affected by them, the bushfires are far from old news. The destruction they’ve faced is truly immeasurable, and so many of them out there will be lumped with the burden of filing through the rubble – both literally and metaphorically – for years, if not decades, to come.
What makes that all the more aggravating is the fact it was completely avertible. The Morrison government did fuck all to prevent bushfires of that caliber from breaking out, despite the litany of warning signs they were presented; once they did break out, the government did nothing of significance to act before it became far too late. And now, almost two years later, all they’ve done is rub salt in our wounds – despite those bushfires having made explicit the punishing effects climate change can have on an entire nation, our federal government continues to sit by idle and champion the very instigators – fossil fuels and blatant ignorance towards climate change – that led us directly where we ended up last summer.
To say the bulk of us are sick of it would be the understatement of the century. As we continue to pick up the pieces of our government’s negligence, we fearfully await the next disaster that its inaction towards climate change will spark. There’s little we can do as individuals, but there is strength in numbers, and music can be a powerful tool to incite an uprising. And with their brutal and bruised new single ‘Descent’, that’s exactly what Canberran hardcore outfit A World In Colour have in mind.
In a press release, frontman Ryan Wiseman noted that ‘Descent’ first came to life in the same weeks those bushfires were raging on. “Whilst the smoke and flames grew closer to our homes,” he said, “it became more and more apparent that we as people turn a blind eye to the damage we cause to the world around us, despite the obvious consequences we are facing more and more often. And yet we still turn a blind eye no matter how many people tell us to change.”
As Wiseman so fiercely points out in his incendiary lyrics: “We’ll burn the pages before we read the words that save us.”
Ahead of its official release tomorrow, A World In Colour are premiering ‘Descent’ here on BLUNT right now – take a look at the film clip for it below…
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