Style: Progressive Rock, Post-Hardcore (Clean Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Flood, Stolas, Bent Knee, The Mars Volta
Country: Australia
Release date: 1 May 2026

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Putting your work out into the world is a frightening experience, no matter how many times you’ve done it. You spend years, maybe longer, slaving away over a creative endeavor, baring your soul, stitching bits of yourself into this precious thing that you know will ultimately be judged by complete strangers—most of whom whose time and consideration of your efforts will likely be fleeting in comparison. Australian post-hardcore gaggle Lovemenot have spent nearly a decade cultivating their debut EP, Strike !! Between the Teeth, a snappy little collection of 70s prog-inflected, jammy rockers that “explores psychosis, mental health, and self reckoning, often through a fantastical and surrealist lens.”¹ Pretty standard scenarios for the music-making masses these days, but when society has become as hostile as the wildlife of the Outback, what else are we to talk about?

The album, duh. Despite the somewhat heavy subject matter, Strike !! Between the Teeth maintains a buoyancy and lightness of touch thanks to the contributions of bassist Zeke White and drummer Jamie Minto, respectively. Minto’s percussion rolls and patters about with an infectious amount of freedom alongside White’s full, bendy bass tones, creating an immediately infectious combination within moments of opener “Waltz”. Buzzy noise rock guitars courtesy of Michael Bourguignon fill the backspace, rising up and over the swells on occasion to deliver ascendant riffs or fall back to create rhythmic textures for White to plow through. For flavor, keyboardist Qayla Locke brings in touches of ye olde 70s with Hammond organ flares and swirling, spacey backdrops. All of this compiled together at times threatens to give me Acolyte vibes, especially in the way tracks like the spellbinding “The Tower” wander in and out of musical trances with a focus on atmospherics and explorative instrumentation. The band even pull in the love-it-or-hate-it saxophone to serenade us in the back half of “The Tower”, where the smoky, languid jam room aesthetics pair well with Gianni Petta’s tempered-yet-expressive performance as she playfully searches the sonic spaces around White, Minto, and Locke.

The band take things in a softer direction on “As Above…”, a stripped back bit of singer-songwriter style acoustics backdropping vocalist Eleanor Edwards as she brings her punky croon down to a breathy recitation. Pacing-wise, the slower track feels natural within the tracklist, and the song’s evolution from campfire jam to haunted woods prog-rock with a simple change in guitar tone ties back in sonically with the rest of the EP. Follow-up “… So Below” feels like a waste at forty-eight seconds, however, acting more as a bridge into rambunctious closer, “Void” than as an essential addition. I don’t mind instrumental interludes but they rarely feel necessary, and “… So Below” unfortunately contributes to that trend. Luckily, the aforementioned “Void” sees the band wrapping things up with a buzzy jammer replete with big keys; bendy, bass-led compositions; and Minto rollicking and rolling all over the place. As the band trades their energetic forefront for another wandering, atmospheric rollout in the back half, I’m reminded pleasantly of (again) Acolyte and even, surprisingly, The Anchoret in the 70s texturing and smooth combination of ambience and action.

In my experience, the more time you spend creating something, the more opportunities there are for overthinking and self-criticism to enter into the equation. Early confidence transmutes into poisonous caution. Enthusiasm becomes anxiety. “This will never be ready until I fine-tune every aspect, and all the other aspects I haven’t even considered,” you feverishly tell yourself. Because, as I said at the start, sharing is frightening. And while I’m sure Lovemenot did a fair amount of tweaking, tuning, and fretting throughout the near-decade of preparing Strike !! Between the Teeth, I’m glad they didn’t let fear or overthinking stop them from sharing with the world. Strike !! Between the Teeth is a confident, expressive debut, a nice little opening shot from a band that, hopefully, will share with us again.

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Recommended tracks: Waltz, The Tower, Void
You may also like: Disillusioned, Acolyte, The Anchoret
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Lovemenot is:
– Michael Bourguignon (guitars)
– Eleanor Edwards (vocals)
– Qayla Locke (keyboards)
– Jamie Minto (drums)
– Zeke White (bass)
With guests:
– Rachel Hull (keyboards on “Waltz”, “The Tower”)
– Jane Stark (percussion on “The Tower”)
– Gianni Petta (saxophone on “The Tower”)

1. From their Bandcamp, here. ↩︎