With a stellar canon in their back pocket, Shihad are arguably New Zealand’s greatest rock export, with five number one albums in their home country and a slew of alternative rock anthems to rely on for their vaunted live performances. While FVEY has been available in the Southern Hemisphere, since August last year, 2015 sees it breaking through the surface in the northern half of our planet via a PledgeMusic campaign.

The first thing to note is that Jaz Coleman (Killing Joke) is once more at the production helm, turning in a crystal clear, juddering sound that particularly suits the heavier, clanking grooves of the opening tracks, of which ‘The Big Lie’ takes the most plaudits with powerful heaves of guitar mugging before Jon Toogood invites you to share in a great chorus. Elsewhere, Coleman adds touches of appropriate class as the adrenaline drains away to more mid-paced lurches as the album progresses, ‘The Great Divide’ in particular touched by the dark rock of Coleman’s day job.

Kicking out the jams with the rockers and a run of songs that are reminiscent of Filter at their loudest, the album turns more brooding as it progresses, while still maintaining sufficient energy to stop matters from tailing off before ‘Model Citizen’ convulses and spits to pick up the aggro, and ‘Wasted In The West’ has a neck-snap that builds to an understated, chorus over a barrel of guitar.

FVEY (or Five Eyes – a reference to an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the US and the UK) adds the nous and cynicism of a band with their heads and foil hats screwed on to the class and depth of seasoned professionals yet manages to avoid sterile songwriting, even though the album pacing could have been helped by one of the rockers appearing later down the order.

At this stage in their twenty-six year career, Shihad could release good albums in their sleep; their stomping intros, questioning verses and intelligent choruses could almost write themselves. Yet their renewed focus and vigour, aided by the cerebral touches of Coleman’s production, answer the question the band themselves pose in ‘Think You’re So Free’, where Toogood hollers “Do you think we’ll wake up?”

Shihad are wide awake, five eyes open, and back at the top of their game.

7.5/10

STEVE TOVEY