The Panic's eagerly awaited new album Cruel Guards, is released on Monday, June 1, and the Australian five-piece will be at The Cluny to play tracks off the new album on Wednesday, June 3.

Cruel Guards is an album that brims with effervescent pop tunes and epic harmonies, drawing comparisons with Echo And The Bunnymen, Bob Dylan and fellow Perth singer songwriter and friend, Luke Steele of The Sleepy Jackson.

Cruel Guards has already scooped a J Award and ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Award – the equivalent of a Brit Award), and the band are now hoping to mirror that success when the album is released here in the UK.

Already gaining radio support, Jae Laffers' vivid, heart bruised lyricism have been compared to the likes of Bob Dylan and Morrisey.

He said: "We don't want to sound like anyone else and hopefully Cruel Guards we've made a record that has a classic sound – ambitious strings, Ennio Morricone soundtracks, big drums.

"If there's ever a day when the passion goes or we run out of ideas, we can look back and think that with this record we did it 24/7, and now we're set up for the long haul."

The Panics will be at The Cluny in Newcastle on Wednesday, June 3.

Visit www.myspace.com/thepanicsmusic for more details.