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**The Drones - Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By**
★★★★☆

There's something beautifully perverse about an Australian band naming themselves after both a Kraftwerk track and the sound of death itself, then proceeding to craft some of the most viscerally honest rock music to emerge from the continent since the Birthday Party crawled out of Melbourne's underground. The Drones, led by the perpetually disheveled and lyrically unhinged Gareth Liddiard, have spent the better part of two decades perfecting their brand of apocalyptic folk-punk, and "Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By" stands as perhaps their most cohesive statement of intent.

Before this 2005 masterpiece, The Drones had already established themselves as Perth's most uncompromising musical export with their earlier releases "Here Come The Lies" and the raw, feedback-drenched "Wait Long By The River" EP. Liddiard's previous outfit, Perth's Gutterville Splendour Six, had imploded in typical fashion, leaving him to channel his considerable demons into something even more caustic. The band's relocation to Melbourne's inner-north proved fortuitous, placing them squarely within a scene that appreciated both their literary pretensions and their ability to make a guitar sound like it was being tortured in a shipping container.

Musically, The Drones occupy that sweet spot where Nick Cave's narrative obsessions meet the Stooges' primitive assault, filtered through the particular brand of existential dread that seems to seep from Australia's red dirt. "Wait Long By The River" showcases this perfectly – it's post-punk in the truest sense, built on the bones of punk rock but reaching toward something more complex and unsettling. Liddiard's guitar work is deliberately crude, favoring atmosphere over technical prowess, while his vocals alternate between a bourbon-soaked croon and the kind of howl you'd expect to hear echoing across the Nullarbor at 3 AM.

The album's standout tracks read like a primer in Australian gothic. "Shark Fin Blues" remains their calling card – a seven-minute odyssey that builds from whispered confessions to full-blown catharsis, with Liddiard painting vivid pictures of coastal decay and personal dissolution. It's the kind of song that makes you want to drive into the desert and never come back. "The Freedom In The Sound" strips things back to their essence, just voice and guitar creating something that feels both ancient and urgently contemporary. Meanwhile, "Baby" showcases the band's ability to craft something approaching a love song, albeit one that sounds like it was written during a three-day bender in a condemned hotel.

The album's genius lies in its ability to make the personal political and the political deeply personal. Liddiard's lyrics are dense with references to Australia's colonial history, environmental destruction, and working-class alienation, but they never feel like sociology lectures. Instead, they read like dispatches from someone who's lived through the country's contradictions and emerged scarred but articulate.

Following "Wait Long By The River," The Drones would go on to release "Gala Mill" in 2006, an even more ambitious work that saw them incorporating elements of drone metal and experimental composition. The album's centerpiece, the 20-minute "Sixteen Straws," pushed their sound into genuinely avant-garde territory while maintaining their emotional core. Then came 2008's "Havilah," which many consider their masterpiece – a concept album about a fictional mining town that served as a metaphor for Australia's relationship with its landscape and history. The album's blend of environmental themes and personal mythology earned them widespread critical acclaim and cemented their reputation as one of Australia's most important bands.

Today, The Drones' influence can be heard across Australia's independent music scene, from the narrative complexity of Courtney Barnett to the sonic adventurousness of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. While the band has remained relatively quiet in recent years, their three-album run from 2005-2008 stands as one of the most impressive artistic statements in Australian rock history.

"Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By" remains essential listening for anyone interested in music that refuses to compromise or comfort. It's an album that rewards patience and punishes casual listening, much like the ancient Chinese proverb that inspired its unwieldy title suggests. In