by Thom Jurek Melbourne, Australia's Drones had a lot to live up to after their debut, Here Come the Lies . That recording, equally split between covers and originals, is now regarded as a an Aussie garage band classic in the same way that recordings by Scientists , Lime Spiders , the Saints , Beasts of Bourbon , Died Pretty ( Free Dirt ), and even Radio Birdman have been heralded. Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By is by contrast a furthering of that vision and a slight turn into darker territory, with all self-penned material. The guitars still blaze, distorted and wild, Gareth Liddiard 's voice is still more howl and growl than croon, and the needle of the recording machine is in the red more often than not. Thank goodness. One listen to "Baby²" is enough to confirm this in spades. Stomp, swagger, and pummel, with smoking hooks and a healthy disregard for rock's current conventions offer proof that this is an album that could only have come from down under. But there's something else, too, as the album's opener, "Shark Fin Blues," attests -- the songs themselves have taken on a more narrative and darker bent lyrically. Indeed, were it not for the overloaded six-strings burning through the heart of the mix, one could swear that Simon Bonney wrote these forlorn, doomed-man-at-sea lyrics for the Crime & the City Solution 's Bride Ship disc: "Standing on the deck watching my shadow stretch/The sun pours down upon the deck/The water's licking around my ankles now/There ain't no sunshine way way down...." On the slower tunes, like "The Best You Can Believe In," the pace snakes and crawls one moment and the choruses explode in scree and fierce wailing feedback, although tempered by hooky backing vocals that counter Liddiard 's tortured hollering. ... Read More...