By blending a range of styles (punk, rockabilly and flat out rock) with great success, The Living End has managed to produce anthemic choruses and memorable songs in abundance".

The Living End were formed in 1994 by Chris Cheney and Scott Owen, who had met years earlier in primary school through their older sisters and began performing together from 1990 while attending Wheelers Hill Secondary College in Melbourne.

[1][4] The Runaway Boys initially played in the local rockabilly music scene but expanded their audience by performing in regional towns and backing popular Melbourne cover band Mercury Blue at the Wheelers Hill Hotel/Pub.

After that tour, The Living End recorded additional tracks for their debut extended play, Hellbound, which received moderate support from community radio stations.

[7] Ed Nimmervoll, an Australian musicologist, described the EP's sound: "they turned their back on '50s rock revivalism and adapted that instrumentation to original songs steeped in UK punk".

[1][3] The six-track EP was co-produced by Lindsay Gravina (Underground Lovers, Cosmic Psychos), Mike Alonso (Jericho) and The Living End for the Rapido label.

[22] The Living End's second album, Roll On, was recorded during July 2000 with Nick Launay (Midnight Oil, Models, Silverchair) producing and appeared in November that year.

[17][19] Although Roll On was a more creative work, Nimmervoll mentioned that they had "broadened their musical scope while keeping in tact [sic] what made them unique - the instrumentation and the socially-aware lyrics".

[24] Cheney later stated that he was trying to prove to critics that The Living End were not a band simply defined by their hit, "Prisoner of Society", and the album showed this by displaying other influences, as well as their traditional fast-paced rockabilly music.

[15] In March 2001 Billboard's review of Roll On described their sound as "Aussie punkabilly", while the group's lyrics show a "socially progressive attitude, discussing prejudice, racism, and political conflict".

However, touring in support of Roll On and the related singles was halted after Cheney had a car accident on the Great Ocean Road, rendering him unable to play for a significant period of time: he was "hospitalised for 2 months".

The Living End developed a side project, The Longnecks, to test out Strachan and new material for their third album, Modern ARTillery, without attracting wide public attention.

[4] The Living End's fourth studio album, State of Emergency, was recorded in Byron Bay with Launay producing,[7][32] following the band's appearance at Splendour in the Grass.

[36] After Cheney overcame his writer's block and was convinced not to leave the band,[27] the group played The Great Escape in April 2007 and restarted work on their fifth studio album.

[38][41] The Age's Andrew Murfett declared they "have never been able to convey the energy and power of their live shows on record ... [this album] is fresh, diverse and relatively honest, and TLE suddenly got a lot more interesting".

In the January 2011 edition of The Living End's News, Cheney revealed "[h]aving spent all of 2010 writing album 6 we have amassed something in the vicinity of 40+ songs to choose from...

[49] In July 2012 Cheney announced on Triple J that throughout November and December of that year, as part of The Retrospective Tour, they would perform each of their six studio albums over a week, in each of five Australian state capitals (Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne).

The Living End also played at the 2014 Soundwave Festival in Australia as a replacement for Stone Temple Pilots who had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts with the recording of their next album.

The Living End supported Cold Chisel in their One Night Stand tour, with shows at Townsville, Darwin, Perth, Macedon Ranges and Sydney.

The video is a parody of reality talent contests, such as The Voice and Idols, and features cameos from many Australian musicians and personalities, such as Jimmy Barnes, Jane Gazzo, Molly Meldrum, Daryl Braithwaite and Murray Cook.

[61] Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine reviewed their debut album, he noted their "sound owes far more to the Ramones than it does to Eddie Cochran, or even the Clash, but they've cleverly appropriated certain rockabilly signatures – most ridiculously, the upright acoustic bass – that give their homage to the golden age of punk a bit of charm".

[2][63] Owen has said that his favourite bands include Stray Cats, Reverend Horton Heat, Midnight Oil, The Clash, The Jam, Green Day, Sublime, Bodyjar, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Rancid, The Beatles and Supergrass.

[2] Allmusic's MacKenzie Wilson found that by Roll On the group had grown up "but continue to rampage on with their rowdy punkabilly ... their sophomore effort pulls toward their Aussie rock roots (AC/DC, Rose Tattoo) and a touch of British class for an eager modification".

[2] Billboard's review of Roll On described their sound as "Aussie punkabilly", while the group's lyrics show a "socially progressive attitude, discussing prejudice, racism, and political conflict"[26] The Worldwide Home of Australasian Music and More Online website reviewed their early releases, with The Living End described as "anthemic and attitudinous brand of rockabilly-meets-punk (circa Clash not SoCal)"; Roll On had them as "kings of rockapunkerbilly"; for Modern Artillery Cheney's lyrics were lauded with "every time I expect the quality to wane, a new level is reached" and the band itself showed that "Nobody plays nitro-powered punkabilly faster or tighter than this combo and Modern Artillery represents the band's finest hour".

[24] However Allmusic's Johnny Loftus found that album showed that the "bawdy gang vocals of 2001's Roll On have been replaced by sculpted multi-tracking ... guitars punch mightily, and the choruses detonate, but they do in colors easily identifiable to a throng of American baby punks with silver safety pins in their mouths".

[67] Fellow Allmusic reviewer Adam Greenberg found that on White Noise the group "experiments a bit with new sounds but also seems to hang right on the edge of what they had been doing previously".

[68] Dave Donnelly opined that the band "have been mining the territory between pop-punk and rockabilly for well over a decade now, and their experience shines through in the slick musicianship" of The Ending Is Just the Beginning Repeating.

Cheney also played guitar and contributed backing vocals to "Private School Kid" on Sarah McLeod's (formerly of The Superjesus) debut solo album.

On Australian band Jet's live DVD, Right Right Right, Chris Cheney appears at the end of the recorded concert to feature on a cover of Elvis Presley's "That's Alright Mamma".

Double bassist Scott Owen appeared on Australian legend Paul Kelly's Foggy Highway album, playing bass on "Song of the Old Rake".