There’s a kind of eerie, electric energy that pulses through Hit or Miss, the latest single from Adelaide’s Hello Enemy.
It’s the sound of a band pulling itself back from the edge, bloodied but unbowed, channelling their turmoil into a three-minute blast of raw, unfettered post grunge. This isn’t a band playing for applause or validation. They’re playing like their lives depend on it, and the result is a song that feels as precarious and exhilarating as a high-wire act over an abyss.
From the opening chant—repetitive, hypnotic, like a mantra for the disaffected—you can feel the tension coiling in the air. And then the riff hits: a snarling, jagged beast of a thing that grabs you by the throat and drags you into the maelstrom. It’s not the polished grunge of radio hits past; this is something rougher, more dangerous, a sound that feels like it could unravel at any moment.
But it never does. Instead, it barrels forward with a kind of desperate momentum, as if stopping would mean falling apart entirely. Skip McNeil’s vocals are the linchpin here, holding the chaos together with a voice that wavers between disdain and desperation. He sings like a man with something to prove and nothing left to lose. The lyrics, deceptively simple, are shot through with a kind of existential dread that’s hard to shake off.
‘‘ It’s a moment of catharsis, of release, a burst of light in the darkness.
‘Tell me what you want, and tell me what you need,’ he demands, but it’s less a plea than a challenge. There’s a raw, unfiltered honesty to it, a sense of someone stripping themselves down to the bone and daring you to look away. And then there’s the chorus—huge, anthemic, the kind of thing that makes you want to throw your fists in the air and shout along.
It’s a moment of catharsis, of release, a burst of light in the darkness. But it’s fleeting, gone almost as soon as it arrives, leaving you with the unsettling sense that nothing has really been resolved. That’s the power of Hit or Miss: it doesn’t offer answers or easy resolutions. It’s controlled chaotic energy, and gloriously alive—a testament to the band’s skills, focus and resilience.
LISTEN TO HELLO ENEMY HERE:
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