THE FRONT ROW

The Aussie punks are no longer just thrashing in the dirt — they’re painting it chrome.

With The Hogg, CIVIC grab your collar, drag you into a dark alley, and offer up a warped sermon on identity, machines, and finding peace in chaos. It’s filthy. It’s philosophical. And it rips.

Named for what they describe as its “disgusting sounding riff” — fair, it does sound like it was raised on a diet of sludge and wire, The Hogg isn’t just a single, it’s a line in the sand. The Melbourne outfit are still snarling, still spitting, but this time there’s a strange beauty buried beneath the feedback. Lyrics like “sunshine on the ocean floor” catch you off guard, like finding poetry scrawled on the back of a toilet door.

It’s the sound of a band letting go of rules. Having torn through Australia’s underground with two raw LPs, CIVIC are now playing with fire, and synths, reverb, and a genuine sense of sonic adventure. You can feel the fingerprints of producer Kirin J. Callinan all over this, there’s boldness in the space, sharpness in the layering. It’s still punk, but punk that’s been dipped in oil and lit with a match.

Drummer Eli Sthapit and bassist Roland Hlavka drive the track like a rusted-out muscle car gunning through a dust storm. It’s unhinged in all the right ways, and the conviction in Jim McCullough’s vocal delivery borders on prophetic, you don’t just listen, you submit.

If this is a taste of Chrome Dipped, then the full album might just melt your face and make you think about the meaning of existence while it’s at it. And that’s exactly the vibe. As guitarist Lewis Hodgson puts it, they want you to feel confused, angry, then good, and honestly, that checks out.

File this under: “Songs to start a riot to, then quietly reflect on after.”
The band are currently tearing up Australia and will crash land at Punk Rock Bowling in Vegas before heading across the US, UK, and Europe this summer. Don’t expect the same band you saw last time, expect something far weirder, heavier, and unexpectedly brilliant.

▶️ Watch ‘The Hogg’ here: YouTube
🎧 Add it to your “Future of Punk” playlist, and get ready for the rest of Chrome Dipped on May 30.
📆 Out now / Album Chrome Dipped out May 30 via ATO Records
🕺 FFO: Amyl & The Sniffers, The Murder Capital, IDLES, METZ