Frankenbok – Irrepressible (EP Review)
Frankenbok - Irrepressible
Released: January 31st, 2025
Lineup:
Adam Glynn // Vocals
Owen Spratling // Bass
Tom Rossell // Drums
Aaron Butler // Guitars
Online
‘Irrepressible’ is a highly appropriate title for a new release from Melbourne’s Frankenbok. This band is pushing up towards three decades of existence. To the uninitiated, yes, you read that right. The ‘Bok have been around for almost thirty years, and they just keep on keeping on, making the music they want to make and not giving a rat’s fat fuck what anyone thinks.
This is, of course, a major part of their long-running charm.
This EP announces and celebrates the return of their original singer, Adam Glynn, to the fold. One of the co-founding members way back towards the end of last century, Glynn spent over twenty years away, while the band used a raft of different frontmen and he spent time on several other musical projects (most notably the avant-garde metal act Five Star Prison Cell), but is now back. And this EP makes it clear that he has lost none of his quirky potency.
Something that has returned to the band’s sound with him is that very sense of quirk and strangeness. The ‘Bok spent much of the intervening time in between his stints smashing out ballsy-arse meat and potatoes thrash metal. But this EP finds them returning to more idiosyncratic territory. For example, check out ‘We’re NOT the Drummonds’, during which Glynn ululates the ‘Family Ties’ theme song almost unrecognizably. Is this track making a statement that the band members like that show more than one of the other major 80s American sitcoms, ‘Diff’rent Strokes’?
This tracks also happens to be arguably the EP’s thrashiest moment. Elsewhere, much of the EP is groove-based, with more helter-skelter and off-kilter moments sprinkled in (check out ‘iWOKE’ and ‘The Fallen Phoenix’, respectively, for proof, the latter probably being the EPs most interesting piece.)
Still, quirk and groove or not, Irrepressible smacks, and smacks hard. There is a joyous rawness to proceedings here – the production isn’t fancy, there is little in the way of subtlety, and this is exactly the way their fans love it.
Irrepressible is five tracks of unconventional, balls-to-the-wall fun. Here’s to another thirty-odd years of Bokmetal….
Frankenbok – Irrepressible tracklisting
1. Dopamine (I Got a New Ping)
2. iWOKE
3. The Fallen Phoenix
4. We’re NOT the Drummonds
5. Static Wings
Rating: 8/10
Irrepressible is out now. Get it here.
Review by Rod Whitfield
