“Rebirth” is not simply the fourth entry in Child‘s discography. It is, by the band’s own admission, a definitive shift — a recalibration of intent that carries the full weight of that word. The Melbourne power trio, anchored by Mathias Northway on guitar and vocals, Michael Lowe behind the kit, and Rhys Kelly on bass, has spent the better part of a decade building a reputation as one of Australia’s most uncompromising heavy acts. Since their 2014 debut, through the critically well-received “Blueside” (2016) and the “I” EP (2018), the band has pursued a Progressive narrowing of focus — a deliberate process of subtraction that reaches its logical conclusion here. The objective, stated plainly, is to strip away the superfluous and arrive at the load-bearing structure of the music itself. What remains when the noise is gone is the point. There is a rawness to this record that reads less like aesthetic choice and more like necessity. Child have long placed a premium on the spontaneity of live performance, maintaining a commitment to never playing a piece the same way twice. That philosophy is encoded into “Rebirth” at the cellular level: the takes feel immediate, the dynamics breathe, and the interplay between the three members carries the lived-in quality of a band that trusts the room. The album was recorded and mixed by Tim Maxwell at Wrangler Studios in Melbourne and mastered by Nick Di Lorenzo at Panorama Mastering — a production chain that honours the rawness of the performances without sacrificing definition. Special dedication goes to David Paul of Orpheus Pickups, cited as a foundational figure in shaping the band’s tone. The album opens with “Woman Like You,” and the intent is declared immediately. This is a slow-burn opener — unhurried, expansive, deliberately anti-climactic in its opening bars before it earns its weight. Northway‘s vocals are warm and incisive, carrying the melodic line over a tight rhythmic foundation laid by Lowe and Kelly. The midsection locks into a sequence of repetitive, hypnotic riffs — thick and circular, built for trance rather than tension — that function as a landing strip for the lead guitar work that follows. Northway’s solo cuts through the low-end mass with controlled aggression, prioritising feel over flash. In the final third, the tempo shifts: the song loosens its grip on Hard Rock convention and opens into Psychedelic territory, with fuzz and modulation effects pushing the track into more exploratory, dissonant space. It is an effective statement of intent. “Forgot How To Love” tightens the screws. This is the most direct piece on the record — a concentrated blast of Heavy Rock still saturated with the Bluesy undertow that defines the band’s signature. Kelly and Lowe push harder here, the rhythm section taking on more propulsive authority as the riffing becomes denser and more insistent. Northway‘s vocal delivery is raw and focused, and the lead work in the back half is sharp and economical — no wasted movement. The track shifts gear in its second section, grounding itself in a late-’60s Heavy Blues idiom filtered through a contemporary sensibility: heavy, personal, and precise. “Heavy Load” is the album’s most concentrated distillation of pure Blues. The arrangement opens with restraint — the groove is unhurried and pliable — before the emotional temperature climbs steadily through the runtime. The guitar-voice dialogue in the first half is particularly effective: Northway treats the instrument and the microphone as a single expressive unit, the two lines completing each other’s sentences before the track resolves into a technically accomplished solo that underscores both his melodic instincts and his command of the idiom. “Damned Heart (Last Time)” is the centrepiece. Structurally it is the most ambitious track on the record — a composition built on constant movement, with multiple time-signature shifts and overlapping guitar figures woven over a rhythmic foundation that Lowe and Kelly manage with notable sophistication. The lead guitar work here is rougher and more distorted than elsewhere on the album, functioning as a textural element as much as a melodic one, surfacing during the track’s high-tension passages before yielding to the cleaner, more Bluesy runs that mark the song’s internal transitions. This is where the band’s growth as composers is most audible. “I Tried (Newy)” sustains the intensity. It is also the most intimate piece here — the verses spare and carefully drawn, Northway‘s vocal subdued and close-miked, the guitar lines delicate and interlocking. The contrast with the refrains is stark: when the full-band sections hit, they land with genuine impact, the rhythm section driving forward with deep, locked-in groove before releasing into harder-edged passages that carry the song’s structural weight. The second half develops through a series of refined solo passages, and the track closes with a sense of earned resolution that sets up the album’s final movement cleanly. Closing duties fall to “Cold Shoulder (Dead),” and it is the right track for the job. The piece builds from Blues-soaked licks and a deliberate, low-register groove — Kelly‘s bass work is particularly prominent, anchoring the track with a deep, sustained pulse that drives the crescendo without overpowering it. The vocal performance is among the most fully committed on the record. The final tempo shift is decisive: the track broadens into a heavier, more open-sounding Hard Rock configuration, with a spacious, psych-adjacent quality that retrospectively clarifies the album’s throughline. It does not feel like an ending so much as an exhale. “Rebirth” is a focused and disciplined record. The six tracks — all of significant duration — hold their weight without filler, and the decision to remove ornament from the arrangements pays consistent dividends. Child have not reinvented their approach here, they have sharpened it. The result is a document that rewards patient listening and earns its title without sentimentality. Available on vinyl in the Gold Nugget pressing (limited to 300 copies) and the Ultra LTD Yellow/Orange/Black variant (limited to 100 copies) — both worth the investment.
Tracklist
01. Woman Like You (07:26)
02. Forgot How TO Love (05:47)
03. Heavy Load (04:03)
04. Damned Heart (Last Time) (05:53)
05. I Tried (Newy( (06:04)
06. Cold Shoulder (Dead) (06:10)
Lineup:
Mathias Northway / Guitar and Vocals
Michael Lowe / Drums
Rhys Kelly / Bass