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.