Review Summary: Canberra is the capital of Austria.
Did You Mean Australia? were a deathcore band from Cincinnati, Ohio, who were active from 2007 to 2014. Outside of their local scene, the band was also popular in the Myspace-deathcore circle of the late 2000's, certainly in part due to their silly name, but also because they were a solid band in the genre. The band's discography consists of three EPs, the first two of which – their self-titled and
Daemonophobia – were remastered in 2021, and released on streaming platforms for the first time. Between these two remastered EPs, I prefer the latter, as it showcases a noticeable improvement in songwriting over the former.
Realistically, if you've heard one Myspace-era deathcore band then you've heard them all, but there are a few aspects of Did You Mean Australia?'s music where they excel. Their riffs have the classic "this is supposed to be scary music but it's ultimately for fun" vibe of classic deathcore, and the transitions into their breakdowns are always smooth, never abrupt. The vocalist was above average for his time, and could alternate between low gutturals and high screams with relative ease, all whilst his "God isn't real"-esque lyrics can be understood fairly easily. The drums are tight – so tight in fact that I had to verify if a drum-machine wasn't utilized on this EP. If the information I found was accurate then a real drummer was indeed used, but it's likely that the drums were triggered, for they do sound inhuman at times, especially the kick drums.
Daemonophobia, I have learned, is the fear of demons. It's as if Did You Mean Australia? wanted to create a gloomy, underworld aesthetic for the EP, and yet the band has a completely absurd name, and included a song called
Wario's Revenge on the tracklist. What this shows is that Did You Mean Australia? exemplifies the duality of classic deathcore between silliness and seriousness, perhaps to the fullest extent. For deathcore listeners who tire of the ultra-seriousness of the genre in its modern iteration,
Daemonophobia would be amongst the first older releases that I would recommend.
