There’s a certain kind of return that doesn’t announce itself with fanfare, but with a pulse: slow, deliberate, and utterly unignorable. That’s the energy Highroad No. 28 channels in “Ache”, their first new release in well over a decade and the opening signal of their forthcoming third album. The Melbourne alt-rock outfit steps back onto the scene not with nostalgia, but with a sound sharpened by time, reflection, and the weight of what’s been carried in silence.
“Ache” feels like it’s pacing around its own shadow. Cinematic guitars stretch into long, lingering arcs; the bass moves with a brooding steadiness; and the vocals don’t merely convey emotion, they unsettle it, as if excavating a memory gently but decisively. The band leans into tension with an almost cinematic restraint, letting small details take their time to surface. Nothing rushes, nothing bluffs. The song breathes like a bruise forming: quiet at first, then swelling with a slow, undeniable pressure.
For a band long associated with intensity and grit, what’s striking here isn’t volume, it’s poise. Their earlier heavy alt-rock aesthetic resurfaces, but through a darker, more deliberate lens. The track’s engineering and mix at Sing Sing Studios give it a spacious, almost haunted texture, allowing each instrument to sit alone in its own pocket of air before converging into the chorus’s near-glacial swell.
Lyrically and emotionally, “Ache” feels like a kind of confession: not dramatic, not embellished, but steeped in the residue of something once vital and now fading. Yet there’s a strange defiance tucked between the lines. Even in its most fragile moments, the song holds its spine straight. The band isn’t wallowing; they’re documenting. That subtle resolve is what gives the track its lasting sting: it aches, yes, but it also endures.
If this single is any indication, Highroad No. 28’s new chapter isn’t simply a comeback, it’s a recalibration. Older, steadier, and a little more cloaked in shadow. They’re indeed sculpting something that moves with purpose..
