The Big Read: Shihad

Herald online

1 Jan, 2015 01:00 AM2 mins to read

Jon Toogood of the band Shihad.

Bringing you our favourite features from 2014. If you missed them the first time around, now’s the perfect time to catch up. And remember to come back tomorrow for the next instalment.

Shihad have delivered the loudest, rowdiest album of their career. Chris Schulz met the band in Melbourne and found its origins lie in some unusual places.

Jon Toogood is playing like his life depends on it.

Bouncing on his tiptoes, his arms blur over his guitar as he screams ironic slogans like "Sell off all your assets!" and "Do a deal with China!" at the crowd in front of him.

There are no other words for it: he's rocking the f*** out.

As the grinding rhythm section of Cheap As - the ass-kicking closing track from Shihad's explosive new album FVEY - kicks into overdrive, bassist Karl Kippenberger leaps up and rushes to his side.

Together, they grind through the song's frenetic finale, a co-ordinated blur of wailing riffs, searing aggression and old-school Shihad attitude.

Shihad performing at York Street Studios.

As the song's last ragged moments ring out, an ecstatic Toogood turns around, throws up his devil horns and bellows "F***ing yeah!" as flecks of saliva fly from his lips.

But there isn't a crowd in sight. Those instruments Toogood and Kippenberger are playing are air guitars. The music is coming out of Toogood's iPod connected to a bank of speakers set into the wall.

And the only other people in the room are drummer Tom Larkin, guitarist Phil Knight, and this writer, who's just a little scared to admit the volume is too loud for his tender ears.

We're crammed into a small Melbourne studio to listen to Shihad's new album FVEY - a full frontal metal assault that rages against the machine at ridiculous volumes.

It is, according to the band, the most important album of their 26-year career - but it wasn't an epic studio effort like some of their past albums. It was more about capturing lightning in a bottle.

As Toogood says proudly: "We spent two weeks on it, which is seven and a half months less than we spent on the Pacifier record."

The problem is, FVEY isn't out until tomorrow, and Shihad's foursome are stuck in the studio trying to explain the album's politically charged venting to an under-caffeinated music journalist.

It's obvious they just want to get on the road and start playing the damn thing live for fans. They won't get the chance to do that until mid-September. ...