“I don’t think I’ve ever delved into storytelling quite like on this release” – Says Matt Wilson, Sibling Rivalry lyricist .

Durban after dark is just that, storytelling. It’s like some sort of weird tour guide through the underbelly of a city which is often undermined, marginalised and not realised for its full beauty and potential. It’s about breaking hearts and being broken hearted, it’s about dingy bars and dark corners. It’s about haunting, haunted pubs and tall tales. It’s about the ocean, the inequality, the people and this class struggle. It’s got socialist driven principles and hedonistic confessions. It’s about loving this town to death but also feeling hate and frustration at the same time. It’s personal, it’s honest, it’s got blood running through it and it was made for the people who feel as strongly about this city as Sibling Rivalry do. It’s about the need to pack up and leave but never quite finding the motivation. It’s about the vagrants, street children, late hours of the night were everything and nothing happens. It’s about being an underdog and pushing on through. It’s about The Winston Pub, it’s about the streets we walk and skate. It’s dark and heavy, but also light and playful and will get people dancing. It was made with more love, dedication, passion, blood, sweat and tears than anyone could ever imagine. It’s the next stage of the bands progression and hell knows it won’t be the last.

Review From Levis Music Mag:

Durban After Dark sets off with a township spring in its step. The opening track “Suburban Durban”, replete with guitar twiddling that echoes Neil Solomon’s early work, paints a picture of a Stone City band reflecting the influences that lie all about them. Unlike so many other garage bands, with their pants hanging round their asses and with their facile yankified accents, we get an original effort from Sibling Rivalry that will endear them to their legion of fans in their hometown whilst they’re sucking on Singhas in Thailand.

It’s immediately obvious that these guys are deeply influenced by the nights and sounds of their city by the sea, and are striking out in their own direction with a pocket full of reference. Yes, Stone City is in many ways similar to LA or for that matter Sydney or any other surf city around the globe, but what makes Durban Durban is that it is an African city, and it shows in the songs on this album. Getting into their stride, “Our Concert Arenas Are Dingy Bars” makes various references to the familiar landmarks and capers that anybody from the city can recognise as the authentic experience, and not the one reflected in glossy brochures aimed at tourists. This is the grittier subculture of the city which spends time ‘under the Umgeni Bridge’, rocking the parking lot, dopping quarts at the Willowvale and skating deserted midnight streets.

Sure, they strike off in directions familiar to anyone who has heard any number of angst-ridden bands that take it out on their guitars, as on “Creaky Windmill”, but redeem themselves with frequent visits to skanking township riffs and fiddly mbaqanga and maskanda flourishes on the strings. These are topped with some respectable guitar solos, gruff vocals and shows of fraternal solidarity with their trademark bouncy choruses, adding up to a lively romp that’s so true to its roots you can practically smell the wet tarmac as this posse penetrates the humid Durban night in pursuit of kicks, downhills and quarts. Favourite tune? “Bar Stool Blues”, because it’s polished, languid, and has some pleasantly laidback and reflective lyrics that resonate with anyone who has sat in the darkest bar in town and wondered what the hell it’s all about. And that, like much on Durban After Dark, a lotta people can relate to.

-Travis Lyle

Review from Bluntmag.co.za

From the Super Jewel Box and slick album layout to the classy photography and crunchy production, Durban After Dark is a shining example of do-it-yourself, self-taught professionalism. A lot of bands trump themselves up in their press write ups, but when Sibling Rivalry write, “Nine years of DIY touring, recording and rocking out has shaped Sibling Rivalry into one of Durban's most charismatic, hard-working and honest bands,” it's all true. Currently, the band are holed up in Thailand, gigging, touring and by all accounts, having a blast. Durban After Dark, Sibling Rivalry's third full length, was released just before they left.

Sibling Rivalry really should have got Durban After Dark certified by the Durban Municipality, 'cos from lines about “salmon coloured skies” to Syd Kitchen quotes, the album's an immersive celebration of a Durban you won't see advertised in any “Ethekweni” brochures. It's like a guided tour through Durban's seedier underbelly, by four guys you wouldn't normally trust as tour guides. Even when they're singing about Cape Town, on track five, “Cape Town's Pretty But It's No Stone City,” Durban doesn't leave their minds for a second.

Musically, more is definitely more, and Sibling Rivalry have crammed more music into 45 minutes than you'd think was possible. The numerous collaborations with well-known Durban musos, like Syd Kitchen, Habit To vocalist Michelle Stent and Black Hittalah, and the constant gang vocals gives the album a rag-tag, shape-shifting sense of family that's powerful – like the monster under your bed. My only gripe though, is that the album doesn't start with track two, “Our Concert Halls Are Dingy Bars.” For a band that thrives on writing anthems, “Our Concert Halls Are Dingy Bars” is as anthemic as it gets – full on goosebumps. Track one, “Suburban Durban,” is misleading. This is a dark album and musically, the track sets the wrong tone. Also, it doesn't help that the next four tracks are four of the best Sibling Rivalry have ever written. I always start Durban After Dark on track two.

Over the years, Sibling Rivalry have gravitated from a straight up punk rock sound to something that more resembles “world music.” Influence-wise, Sibling Rivalry are like a sponge. They soak up a little bit of everything they hear and see around them, throw it in the Sibling Rivalry blender and bang it out with heart, passion and conviction. On Durban After Dark, there's a strong influence from California prog-rockers RX Bandits, Cape Town's The Rudimentals and I often found myself singing Sublime's line, “Down here at the pawn shop.” But Sibling Rivalry smear those influences with African rhythms, seriously-grooving basslines, punk rock and Mary Jane, and what you're left with is 100% their own. Anger, frustration, heartbreak and broken hearts, dingy bars and a sense of brotherhood and togetherness that's contagious. By now, they're probably the biggest band in Thailand.

-Webster