Suffering Jukebox

This week's episode features an interview with Shogun from Sydney based band Antenna. Rolling By is the band's latest single, with an album soon to follow. Antenna will be in Brisbane this Friday, playing at Black Bear Lodge alongside Sick People, Raw Impact and Kings Currency. Find out more about Antenna (and purchase their music) here: https://lastriderecords.bandcamp.com/track/rolling-by and here: https://antennnnna.bandcamp.com/album/antenna-2

Nick's Pick of the Week is Big|Brave's In Grief Or In Hope, which was released on Friday June 12th. You can hear it in all the usual places, or purchase it here; https://bigbrave.bandcamp.com/album/in-grief-or-in-hope and my review can be read below.

Big|Brave: In Grief Or In Hope (Thrill Jockey)

Released June 12th 2026

Big|Brave’s tenth album may be their best yet. Never content to take the easy road, In Grief Or In Hope documents a band that is unafraid to risk it all for the sake of the song. A devastating and dense wall of sound that is (at times) both brutal and beautiful.

Formed in Montreal in 2012 by guitarists (and sole constant members) Robin Wattie —also on vocals— and Mathieu Ball, Big|Brave’s lineup has also previously featured Louis-Alexandre Beauregard and Tasy Hudson on drums. On In Grief Or In Hope, Australian bassist Liam Andrews recorded with the band for the first time, after serving as their live bassist for several years prior.

Across its eight tracks, In Grief Or In Hope crackles, buzzes and hums with an industrial energy that has been merely hinted at on previous records. What May Be The Kindest Way To Leave opens the album, with seven and a half minutes of grinding, droning guitar tones under Wattie’s pitch-shifted vocals. A Shape Of Shame begins in ambient territory, before building slowly into a cacophony of catharsis, whereas A Holding Tongue —with its ebbs and flows of feedback— maintains an (almost) peaceful vibe that is both soothing and disquieting. Skin Ripper (near the end of the record) is an absolute behemoth of noise that lives up to its name, whilst the final and title track is nothing short of apocalyptic.

With each new release, Big|Brave do their best to adhere to Forrest Gump’s analogy for life, “… like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.” That said, the arrival of any new music from Big|Brave heralds far more excitement than what can be provided by a piece of confectionary. Their only constant is continual evolution and their only certainty is the drive to never, ever rehash old ideas. In Grief Or In Hope showcases the group at the absolute height of their powers —at least until their next record arrives.

Nick Stephan