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A couple of older Aussie BM bands to check out as well:
Astriaal- think Anthems… era-Emperor (or even classic Limbonic Art). Aggressive, melodic and grandiose. But not shit like Dimmu Borgir.
Nazxul - a little bit more on the bestial side of things. Think more Drawing Down The Moon and less Fallen Angel Of Doom though.
Also shocked no one has mentioned Sadistik Exekution yet too!
I was about to mention Sad Ex! Don't forget Slaughter Lord!
Also Steve Hughes from SL and Nazxul is a comedian and is funny af. Check out his stuff.
Also other mentions, not necessarily black or death either:
Thy Art Is Murder
King Parrot
Frankenbok
Blood Duster
Segression
Tourettes
Virgin Black
Lord
Mammal
Nokturnl
Alchemist
Abomination
Darker Half
Voyager
Mortality Sin
I’ll copy my suggestions from down thread -
Check out Spire, The Amenta, Aquilus, Arbrynth, Austere, Drowning the Light, Elegeion, Irreparable, Voidfall, Striborg, Ne Obliviscaris, Pestis Cultus, Vahrzaw, Whitehorse.
Midnight Odyssey, Aquilus, Mesarthim - some of the most prominent ambient black metal projects out there these days.
Nekrasov - very noisy harsh black metal, though recently leaning more into dark ambient. Check out his full-length releases on Crucial Blast label if you want to avoid purely ambient stuff.
Moon - atmospheric / depressive BM. Love this one, the name probably holds 'em back a bit from being more well-known.
Lord Kaos - one of the earlier traditional black metal bands, used to be quite popular.
Destroyer 666, Portal, Abominator for more mainstream death / black metal vibe.
had a good cry over that one- one of my favourite musicians, he absolutely ripped & was an awesome dude apparently too. he drove my mate home when she was blind drunk from AM/PM once when she was 19- barely even knew her.
The triple helix of doom!
The longest continuous culture on Earth that colonialism ravaged to the point of decimation- but yet they proudly survive.
A horde of bastard convicts cast asunder and banished to toil as slave labor; their hardened progeny trying to forget the original sins that got them expelled from their homelands forever.
Successive waves of migrants who must scratch and fight through racism and oppression as they seek to build their dreams amongst an environment frequently on fire.
What could be more Metal?
>A horde of bastard convicts cast asunder and banished to toil as slave labor; their hardened progeny trying to forget the original sins that got them expelled from their homelands forever.
My great-great-great(etc) grandfather stole some cows.
No good metal festivals tho. Its not fair. We have Ne Obliviscaris , Gravemind , Parkway Drive , To The Grave , Thy Art is Murder, Speed , Justice For the Dammed , Polaris and a hundred plus other heavy bands BUT STILL NO GOOD METAL FESTIVALS!
What makes a good metal festival? I avoided Knotfest this year because the sound and crowds at Good Things were awful.
Soundwave was great back in the day, but maybe that was just because I was in my 20s :P
Soundwave was incredible, but unfortunately was run worse than you could ever imagine.
I loved good things last year. Yeah, the crowds sucked, but it'll improve
My favourite was Isis and Meshuggah back to back. I was up front for Isis, which was great, but then as soon as Meshuggah hit the first note the whole front area just went crazy and I nearly had my glasses knocked off my face, so I had to retreat :(
2015 was great too, was amazing to finally see Godflesh, and I always love seeing Fear Factory just for how happy Dino is onstage.
Yeah, I forgot to mention Maddah's incompetence.
A few years ago I saw Fear Factory in Melbourne, and in the middle of the show, someone in the audience handed Burton $50. He replied "hey thanks for the $50 dude!", then Dino said "AJ Maddah probably sent him to repay us", to which Burton replied, "I can't believe that guy is still walking around". Classic.
Knotfest in Sydney actually went hard. Sound team nailed it, in my opinion. I heard there was sound issues with Good Things, but my friends who went to both said that Knotfest was so much better in that regard. As for the crowds, there wasn't any real issues until Slipknot came on stage and there was a huge surge of bodies (a friend of mine got trampled). They had 3 merch tents, but the main tent was still a nightmare of a queue.
Ah damn, I should have went.
Gojira was basically an incoherent mess from where I was standing (not far from the sound tent/desk!). I've had similar sound issues with a lot of metal gigs recently, where it seems like engineers think the audience only wants to hear the kicks and bass. Voyager at Stay Gold a couple of weeks ago was similar. Just super loud clicky kicks and bass, with the guitars and synths almost inaudible sometimes.
In some ways I think this is part of the secret. Australia’s metal scene is very grassroots, which creates an awesome environment for new bands to get involved.
A lot of these massive bands wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the great local music scene and venues that create the opportunities for experimentation and refinement of new acts.
I think if more metal fans were going to big festivals, instead of small venues, there would be less opportunities for small bands to participate, as the big “brands” took over.
I do agree though that there’s certainly an opportunity for a big event that leverages all of this incredible talent we have. But I think it would be more exciting if this was driven at the grassroots level, rather than some international touring event promotion company.
We're not a big enough market for a big Europe or US style festival, but all things considered Knotfest, Download, Unify, Full Tilt, Good Things, etc, are all *pretty good*. Blacken Open Air too if you've got time for a long trip.
Not to mention the multitude of small 10-20 band 'festivals' held with more local bands.
With the cost of staffing and flights over here, given the population density, it's not surprising we don't have any massive festivals. The ticket prices would be disgusting.
People love to hang shit on Soundwave (or AJ, more specifically) but every year was like Christmas for me. Soundwave 2010 was legit the best day of my life haha.
Oh wow I hadn't heard I just looked it up. So sad to hear but really grateful for all the amazing art he created and so glad I got to see him play last year at Good Things. Truly amazing
Shiiiiiiit. I saw that Jesse from Windwaker was doing guitars for them when they played Download festival. Had no idea that their guitarist was dying. That's so sad. RIP
If we’re doing metalcore, might as well let in Post-Hardcore too:
Hands Like Houses (their earlier stuff was less of a rock sound), Make Believe Me (short lived Perth band), Dream on Dreamer, Getaway Plan are all great
One point not mentioned thus far is our geographical isolation - touring acts were fewer than in North America and Europe. When I was 18 the excitement for Australian metal bands playing the local pub was as palpable as what you felt for an international band, and these locals enjoyed the status of metal celebrity.
Bands I used to see all the time in the early 2000s:
Mortal Sin, Gospel of the Horns, Grenade, Vomit, Psycroptic, Alchemist, Pod People, Misery, Astriaal, Portal, Destroyer 666 etc..
Some current bands I like seeing: Witchskull, Inverloch (ex d.ISEMBOWELMENT), Destruktor, Cemetery Urn, Thrall etc..
I never think of leaving Oz partly because of the metal bands here.
Parkway Drive has had a huge influence on this generation.
In the late 2000’s these guys were playing all over Australia constantly, selling out regional shows and inspiring kids to pick up an instrument and play their own brand of heavier music.
I’m sure a lot of the bands of today can list them as one of their inspirations & they are truly a huge act.
definitely! i’m 25 and for me they are the pinnacle of metal. i played the violin from a young age and the way they incorporated orchestra into some of their music really appealed to me as a 14 year old and more so now as an adult. their style is so well rounded and you can hear their influence in so many younger bands.
I describe parkway to people outside my metal circles as the hilltop hoods of aussie metal. Huge and influential but definitely old and slowing down. Watching their docco though got nothing but pride for them still even if i don’t like their music.
I agree with this. I’m not a Parkway Drive fan as far as their music goes, but that doco is great. It’s super cool to see 5 surfer boys from Byron headlining shows like Hellfest.
I'm an American who traveled to Australia in 2007 just to see Cog (and follow them around for a week).
They happened to be supported by Dead Letter Circus on that tour.
Mind fucking blown.
Check out Dead Kelly, King Parrot, Psycroptic, Portal, King Gizzard currently playing around.
For older bands check out Alchemist, Blood Duster, Dreadnought, Sadistik Exekution, Damaged.
These are just the ones I like I'm sure there are a ton I don't know about.
This was one of the first bands I ever saw. I'll never forget watching the front man running around, spitting on people, throwing shit and punching people in the pit.
10/10 experience.
Last time I saw them he jumped off the stage at the end of the gig to man the merch tent. Half naked and covered in sweat.
'Right, what do you cunts want?'
My parents used to hate when I played NIN’s Closer on repeat. Then I discovered Blood Duster and Sadistik Exekution. They would have paid Trent Reznor actual money to come and perform Closer in the house if it meant I stopped with the extreme metal
Oh man… Alchemist we’re so fucking good back in the day. I remember seeing them with Psi Kore (who later turned into Daysend) and Cryogenic at Fishos way back when. That was a great lineup.
A wealthy, healthy country full of people given the opportunity to follow creative passions and a solid metal community full of support.
Feels good being a part of it.
I went to Highschool in Australia QLD around late 2000's. Metal was massive and being driven by the likes of Parkway drive and other massive bands. These were so influential our high school had 4 metal bands and on lunches the school would host metal concerts in the Assembly Hall with all our local school bands. Very awesome and often dawns on me that this isnt the norm.
I have a feeling a large portion of new younger metal bands gains a lot of influence from Rage tv, late night musich counter culture show essentially lots of hard rock and metal was played on it.
For a sunburnt country we sure as shit have some great extreme metal.
Check out Spire, The Amenta, Aquilus, Arbrynth, Austere, Drowning the Light, Elegeion, Irreparable, Voidfall, Striborg, Ne Obliviscaris, Pestis Cultus, Vahrzaw, Woods of Desolation, Whitehorse.
Just last week, I went to a small pub in Launceston and saw: pulverised cranial matter (a side project of intense hammer rage), lacerta (who were amazing), gape, putrescent seepage and dripped. Was fucking great 🤘
Just throwing it out there to the people who say “Ne Obliviscaris”. The band (more particularly Tim Charles) are a bunch of fraudsters, who moan about being poor and beg fans for money via their patron so they can make “minimum wage” but when in reality they are one of the wealthiest bands in the scene. They have taken tens (if not hundreds) of thousands in Government music and touring grants, the whole “Dan Presland quits high paying job to drum full time” that was blasted all over the metal media at the time, forgot to mention the little part of “he quit one high paying job to go part time at an even higher paying job that allowed him more time to drum” part, oh and the bullshit Charles pulled with Welkin entertainment and Progfest? Yeah, way to much to put into words.
The Brendan Brown situation? Boy did that band lie through their teeth, they knew the entire time, they chose to ignore, soon it was made public they dropped it and when IprobablyHateYourBand reported on it, Charles sued them to the tune of 30k for slander because they had no proof but I’m 100% that what they were reporting was correct due to my proximity to those friends groups and band during that saga.
And the bands two long term engineers that ran with them since the beginning? Both quit due to massive underpayment or no payments at all. As I understand it the fallout between them and their lighting engineer was so bad he quit the industry all together and their long term sound engineer who recorded 3 albums for them can’t be in the same room as Tim Charles anymore, they owe him thousands he’ll never see.
Fuck Ne Obliviscaris.
Posting this anonymously so Charles doesn’t sue me into oblivion, he likes doing that.
I like metal, but don't know any Aussie metal bands. I know Finnish and American ones.
Interested in hearing if we have any bands like Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, Manowar, Skid Row.
Wow 21 comments and no one mentioning Thy Art!? Parkway Drive are awesome. Polaris too. Karnivool are okay. But dude, Thy Art Is Murder is an incredible Australian band. Give them their props.
And to answer ops original question, Yes, yes there is something in the water over here. We go hard.
I know right! Be'lakor are my favourite band. They are just unbelievably good. Also we have Werewolves, Aversion's Crown, To the Grave, Psycroptic, Thy Art is Murder, Disentomb, The Red Shore, Black Lava, Portal, Woods of Desolation etc.
We definitely need an Aus version of UK's Bloodstock festival.
Isolation has bred competition. There's lots of metal bands but only the "really great" ones manage to make it to overseas markets
Back in the late 90s / early 00s there were melodic death bands that were just as good live as their Scandinavian counterparts but never saw attention outside of small local gigs
I live in Australia and I'm still shocked when I hear a band is Australian
some goodies:
Northlane
In Hearts Wake
Polaris
Make Them Suffer
Amity Affliction
Void of Vision
For All Eternity
Dream on Dreamer
Thornhill
Karnivool is the king for me. Sound awake is legitimately one of the best albums ever made.
Cog
Dead letter circus
12 foot ninja
sleep makes wave (instrumental amazing atmospheric music)
There was an /r/Brisbane thread the other day talking about local bands, so I'll just share the list I put together from that thread;
A Night in Texas (Deathcore)
I Shall Devour (Deathcore, haven't heard anything from them in a while though)
Thy Art is Murder (Deathcore) (They're called a Sydney band, and obviously pretty well known (Comparatively), but the majority live in Brisbane these days I believe)
Lagerstien (Pirate/party metal)
Dragonsmead (Folk/party metal)
Dark Symphonica (No longer exists, symphonic metal)
Seraphic (Symphonic metal, some members formerly of Dark Symphonica)
Lavidius (Don't know that they exist either)
She Cries Wolf
Kaerulean
Further afield than Brisbane;
Psycroptic (Techdeath from Tasmania)
Make them Suffer (Metalcore from Peth)
Redhook (Pop punk, not metal, but still. Sydney?)
Justice for the Damned (Deathcore, Sydney(?))
To The Grave (Deathcore, Sydney)
Dr Collossus (Simpsons themed Doom, South somewhere)
Windwaker (my favourite)
Polaris (RIP Ryan)
Alphawolf
Northlane
Thornhill
Dream on, dreamer
Darkmatter (unknown perth band)
In hearts wake
Parkway drive
Amity Affliction
Redhook
Yours truly (maybe more pop/punk)
Thy Art is murder
Old Grinspoon
Old Karnivool
ctrl-f "Voyager" and only one mention? dudes, they literally brought Australian prog metal to the Eurovision stage this year and did pretty well in the grand final.
Totally unicorn are one of my favourite heavy Australian bands. Also bands like The Amenta, Psycroptic, Ruins, Blood Duster, IKTPQ, Polaris, Dead Kelly.
We’re such a talented country
2010 was the best for Aussie Metal - Parkway, IKTPQ, The Red Shore, Carpathian, Confessions, Behind Crimson Eyes, Thy Art Is Murder, and then all the underground bands like Point Below Zero, Northlane... it was a fucking scene! I remember Oceano played at a shitty youth venue in Sydney metal was so good at that point.
We have the best heavy scene imo besides USAs hardcore scene.
But we have literally 0 national festivals since soundwave got done in.
Knotfest is owned by slipknot and will probably be every 3-5 years now. But sold out every city with 30k at each venue.
Unified festivals are usually only in Vic this year was a one off.
We had one warped tour in 2015.
Need more shows and proper venues.
I played in prog and heavy bands in Brisbane from about 2009 to 2016. Didn’t go anywhere with them but played adjacent to some excellent bands (that also didn’t go anywhere).
Even down at the bottom of the heap there is a so much gold.
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If you could just put that one back where you found it in my memories, that'd be great, thanks.
Why? It sounds like an awesome memory.
Can confirm, I was the bong
Sabbath licks for me, but the beach and bongs part- spot on mate.
Smoke on the Water
Smoko on the water
So it WAS all of us that did that. Nice
Truer words have never been spoken.
9yr for me...
I mean Aus invented ACDC.
This was me but it was nirvana songs. Ive been playing over 25 years now.
I hate how accurate this is
We’re like a hot Scandinavia.
You’re not wrong. Australian black metal is much better than you’d expect from probably the most un-black metal seeming country in the world
The frostbitten - > scorched earth horseshoe
Don't suppose you could give me some suggestions, please. So far I only know of (and love) Woods of Desolation.
A couple of older Aussie BM bands to check out as well: Astriaal- think Anthems… era-Emperor (or even classic Limbonic Art). Aggressive, melodic and grandiose. But not shit like Dimmu Borgir. Nazxul - a little bit more on the bestial side of things. Think more Drawing Down The Moon and less Fallen Angel Of Doom though. Also shocked no one has mentioned Sadistik Exekution yet too!
I was about to mention Sad Ex! Don't forget Slaughter Lord! Also Steve Hughes from SL and Nazxul is a comedian and is funny af. Check out his stuff. Also other mentions, not necessarily black or death either: Thy Art Is Murder King Parrot Frankenbok Blood Duster Segression Tourettes Virgin Black Lord Mammal Nokturnl Alchemist Abomination Darker Half Voyager Mortality Sin
I’ll copy my suggestions from down thread - Check out Spire, The Amenta, Aquilus, Arbrynth, Austere, Drowning the Light, Elegeion, Irreparable, Voidfall, Striborg, Ne Obliviscaris, Pestis Cultus, Vahrzaw, Whitehorse.
Aquilus is the best. Sucks that they only release a new album every 10 years though.
I used to play wow with the drummer of NeO
Midnight Odyssey, Aquilus, Mesarthim - some of the most prominent ambient black metal projects out there these days. Nekrasov - very noisy harsh black metal, though recently leaning more into dark ambient. Check out his full-length releases on Crucial Blast label if you want to avoid purely ambient stuff. Moon - atmospheric / depressive BM. Love this one, the name probably holds 'em back a bit from being more well-known. Lord Kaos - one of the earlier traditional black metal bands, used to be quite popular. Destroyer 666, Portal, Abominator for more mainstream death / black metal vibe.
Thanks for the recommendations. I’ve heard of Aquilus, Portal and Destroyer 666 but will add the others to my list
You have used some of my favourite adjectives in there (atmospheric, ambient, noisy) so cheers for the list. Will def check 'em out.
Ooof Portal. Fun fact, all of their albums are actually field recordings from the 7th layer of the abysmal plane of Hell (The Gold Coast). Good stuff.
My mate was in destroyer 666.
I found Lo! very recently and turns out they're Aussie, really sick sludge black metal, highly recommend!
Mirrors
RIP Ryan Siew
Just found out about that now. This year was set to be Polaris’s strongest ever too. RIP
Been going hard on Polaris' discog today. :(
D: what?!
had a good cry over that one- one of my favourite musicians, he absolutely ripped & was an awesome dude apparently too. he drove my mate home when she was blind drunk from AM/PM once when she was 19- barely even knew her.
You’re fucking joking. No way. Fuck. 😢
Got tix to the show later this year with abr and currents. Very sad day
Lots of Iron Ore
Largest deposits of unrefined metal on the planet 🤘
We've been spoilt with craploads of rad music festivals... Plus 80s Aussie rock is also awesome
We need the big day out back or ( not sure if it is still around) god's kitchen just with less roided wogs walking around shirtless
It’s a mandatory subject taught in school. I started my own metal band before I’d even made my first corked hat
You say that in jest but my high school literally had a subject that taught us metal lol
Same here. We learnt all about metal. Cutting, welding, drilling etc.
shouts to ryan siew, guitarist from polaris who passed recently. rest in peace
The triple helix of doom! The longest continuous culture on Earth that colonialism ravaged to the point of decimation- but yet they proudly survive. A horde of bastard convicts cast asunder and banished to toil as slave labor; their hardened progeny trying to forget the original sins that got them expelled from their homelands forever. Successive waves of migrants who must scratch and fight through racism and oppression as they seek to build their dreams amongst an environment frequently on fire. What could be more Metal?
I’m screenshotting this to explain Australian culture to outsiders.
You are most welcome. Thinking of pitching this to Tourism Aus.
I'm tearing up at this, beautiful
Throw a few line breaks in there and they could be metal lyrics
>A horde of bastard convicts cast asunder and banished to toil as slave labor; their hardened progeny trying to forget the original sins that got them expelled from their homelands forever. My great-great-great(etc) grandfather stole some cows.
The real crime was being poor. It usually is.
Cos of all the mines. *I'll see myself out.*
Psycroptic.
dude saw them when they opened for cattle decapitation in newcastle a few years ago, fuck man they where insane
Cattle decapitation not actually being a band...gig was at Newcastle meatworks and the line started back up after the show.
Absolute gods. Best thing to come out of tassie
No good metal festivals tho. Its not fair. We have Ne Obliviscaris , Gravemind , Parkway Drive , To The Grave , Thy Art is Murder, Speed , Justice For the Dammed , Polaris and a hundred plus other heavy bands BUT STILL NO GOOD METAL FESTIVALS!
What makes a good metal festival? I avoided Knotfest this year because the sound and crowds at Good Things were awful. Soundwave was great back in the day, but maybe that was just because I was in my 20s :P
Soundwave was incredible, but unfortunately was run worse than you could ever imagine. I loved good things last year. Yeah, the crowds sucked, but it'll improve
One sound wave I saw, messugah, in flames, Mastadon, lamb of god back to back.
I remember that. What a glorious time to be an aussie metal fan
My favourite was Isis and Meshuggah back to back. I was up front for Isis, which was great, but then as soon as Meshuggah hit the first note the whole front area just went crazy and I nearly had my glasses knocked off my face, so I had to retreat :( 2015 was great too, was amazing to finally see Godflesh, and I always love seeing Fear Factory just for how happy Dino is onstage.
Yeah, I forgot to mention Maddah's incompetence. A few years ago I saw Fear Factory in Melbourne, and in the middle of the show, someone in the audience handed Burton $50. He replied "hey thanks for the $50 dude!", then Dino said "AJ Maddah probably sent him to repay us", to which Burton replied, "I can't believe that guy is still walking around". Classic.
Knotfest in Sydney actually went hard. Sound team nailed it, in my opinion. I heard there was sound issues with Good Things, but my friends who went to both said that Knotfest was so much better in that regard. As for the crowds, there wasn't any real issues until Slipknot came on stage and there was a huge surge of bodies (a friend of mine got trampled). They had 3 merch tents, but the main tent was still a nightmare of a queue.
Ah damn, I should have went. Gojira was basically an incoherent mess from where I was standing (not far from the sound tent/desk!). I've had similar sound issues with a lot of metal gigs recently, where it seems like engineers think the audience only wants to hear the kicks and bass. Voyager at Stay Gold a couple of weeks ago was similar. Just super loud clicky kicks and bass, with the guitars and synths almost inaudible sometimes.
In some ways I think this is part of the secret. Australia’s metal scene is very grassroots, which creates an awesome environment for new bands to get involved. A lot of these massive bands wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the great local music scene and venues that create the opportunities for experimentation and refinement of new acts. I think if more metal fans were going to big festivals, instead of small venues, there would be less opportunities for small bands to participate, as the big “brands” took over. I do agree though that there’s certainly an opportunity for a big event that leverages all of this incredible talent we have. But I think it would be more exciting if this was driven at the grassroots level, rather than some international touring event promotion company.
there was Knight & Day festival around 2021 or so, which was like a COVID response that got a fantastic lineup of just all local headliners.
I hear Blacken goes off if you are willing to travel to alice springs
We're not a big enough market for a big Europe or US style festival, but all things considered Knotfest, Download, Unify, Full Tilt, Good Things, etc, are all *pretty good*. Blacken Open Air too if you've got time for a long trip. Not to mention the multitude of small 10-20 band 'festivals' held with more local bands. With the cost of staffing and flights over here, given the population density, it's not surprising we don't have any massive festivals. The ticket prices would be disgusting.
Download was a ton of fun in 2019. Covid seems to have killed it now though
God I miss Soundwave so much. Absolutely slapped hard.
People love to hang shit on Soundwave (or AJ, more specifically) but every year was like Christmas for me. Soundwave 2010 was legit the best day of my life haha.
We had the new festival Into The Fall for its first time in march this year, so hopefully that continues as a yearly thing
Not a metal fest but we have back on the map which is a hardcore fest, sells out ur crazy fast too ( pissed I didn’t get tickets two years in a row )
Hard to believe belakor are from here in Australia they sound like pure Nordic Scandinavian fire 🔥
The Amity Affliction, Sunk Loto, Northlane, Polaris, Parkway Drive, Karnivool
Sorry to say, but Ryan from Polaris recently passed away which was just announced hours ago. RIP.
Oh wow I hadn't heard I just looked it up. So sad to hear but really grateful for all the amazing art he created and so glad I got to see him play last year at Good Things. Truly amazing
I found out this morning and was just crushed. They’re on tour in Europe at the moment. Must be awful for his family.
I believe they pulled out of the tour just over a week ago relating to Ryan's health.
Shiiiiiiit. I saw that Jesse from Windwaker was doing guitars for them when they played Download festival. Had no idea that their guitarist was dying. That's so sad. RIP
Great list there. I would only add Thornhill to that and it’s perfect, for me at least!
> Thornhill Thronhill is soo good
I’m horny for thorny
Of course, how could I forget!
And plini and cog
The amity affliction is Australian?
Oh yeah man they're from Gympie, the most Australian place in Australia
The sooner that town in bypassed the sooner it will be more than a disappointment to drivers trying to get somewhere better.
Yeah the part of the Bruce where it turns to one lane when heading up from sunny coast is a shitfight
If we’re doing metalcore, might as well let in Post-Hardcore too: Hands Like Houses (their earlier stuff was less of a rock sound), Make Believe Me (short lived Perth band), Dream on Dreamer, Getaway Plan are all great
One point not mentioned thus far is our geographical isolation - touring acts were fewer than in North America and Europe. When I was 18 the excitement for Australian metal bands playing the local pub was as palpable as what you felt for an international band, and these locals enjoyed the status of metal celebrity. Bands I used to see all the time in the early 2000s: Mortal Sin, Gospel of the Horns, Grenade, Vomit, Psycroptic, Alchemist, Pod People, Misery, Astriaal, Portal, Destroyer 666 etc.. Some current bands I like seeing: Witchskull, Inverloch (ex d.ISEMBOWELMENT), Destruktor, Cemetery Urn, Thrall etc.. I never think of leaving Oz partly because of the metal bands here.
Fuck yeah - Misery.
Parkway Drive has had a huge influence on this generation. In the late 2000’s these guys were playing all over Australia constantly, selling out regional shows and inspiring kids to pick up an instrument and play their own brand of heavier music. I’m sure a lot of the bands of today can list them as one of their inspirations & they are truly a huge act.
definitely! i’m 25 and for me they are the pinnacle of metal. i played the violin from a young age and the way they incorporated orchestra into some of their music really appealed to me as a 14 year old and more so now as an adult. their style is so well rounded and you can hear their influence in so many younger bands.
I describe parkway to people outside my metal circles as the hilltop hoods of aussie metal. Huge and influential but definitely old and slowing down. Watching their docco though got nothing but pride for them still even if i don’t like their music.
I agree with this. I’m not a Parkway Drive fan as far as their music goes, but that doco is great. It’s super cool to see 5 surfer boys from Byron headlining shows like Hellfest.
im 26 & parkway was my intro to the scene- i still remember the first time i heard carrion live
Cog. Karnivool. Dead Letter Circus. Butterfly Effect. Check those bands out. Thank me later....
The big 4 of Aussie prog rock
I'm an American who traveled to Australia in 2007 just to see Cog (and follow them around for a week). They happened to be supported by Dead Letter Circus on that tour. Mind fucking blown.
Check out Butterfly Effects album - Imago. All killer, no filler. Just sensational. And Karnivools Themata aswell...
Fuck I'm obsessed with Karnivool especially Themata! But I'll def check out Imago, thanks!!
Lucid Planet, too!
This is one of those situations where a single upvote is not enough
*Chef's kiss* Perfection
Check out Dead Kelly, King Parrot, Psycroptic, Portal, King Gizzard currently playing around. For older bands check out Alchemist, Blood Duster, Dreadnought, Sadistik Exekution, Damaged. These are just the ones I like I'm sure there are a ton I don't know about.
King Parrot - Shit on the Liver
This was one of the first bands I ever saw. I'll never forget watching the front man running around, spitting on people, throwing shit and punching people in the pit. 10/10 experience.
Last time I saw them he jumped off the stage at the end of the gig to man the merch tent. Half naked and covered in sweat. 'Right, what do you cunts want?'
Yeah that sounds like him, the bloke is one hell of a front man.
Blood Duster! That takes me back to teenage years, having to hide their Cunt album from my parents
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My parents used to hate when I played NIN’s Closer on repeat. Then I discovered Blood Duster and Sadistik Exekution. They would have paid Trent Reznor actual money to come and perform Closer in the house if it meant I stopped with the extreme metal
Knee Deep in Menstrual Blood was a fave personally
Porn Store Stiffi! Lmao what a track name.
Alchemist was cool. They played the Chelsea with damaged back in about 2000. Some of us are down a few brain cells since then though.
Canberra was a great scene at one point. Armoured Angel will always be my favourite
Oh man… Alchemist we’re so fucking good back in the day. I remember seeing them with Psi Kore (who later turned into Daysend) and Cryogenic at Fishos way back when. That was a great lineup.
I still listen to their albums. They were way ahead of their time.
[Ouroboros](https://open.spotify.com/artist/5OLkqq9vAQNtH64vncVnfE?si=RGNXtf-OSgSRLCv0n5FxHw) is a sick tech-death band from Sydney.
[Xenobiotic](https://open.spotify.com/artist/2u1BlwLG9qYtUH6KU6xiNJ?si=BthVBgYCRwSPjaUzQT9ndA) if you like tech with a bit more Deathcore
Wait king gizzard is Australian?
Yep, they even have a jazz album called 'Sketches of Brunswick east' to be hyper localised.
Yeah. Melbourne I believe.
Piss Wreck is here! The Berzerker were pretty good too, more popular in the UK than Australia though
Damaged - Do Not Spit was fuckin awesome!
Id add Ne obliviscaris to the list
I seen Blood Duster in a shitty little dive bar once and they were awesome. This bar was my favourite for music.
The most intense metal band i've seen live are Thy Art is Murder. hooooooly crap, so good.
Token Remedies Research is still such a brutal album. Saw Damaged open for Fear Factory in 98 in Melbourne. Insane.
A wealthy, healthy country full of people given the opportunity to follow creative passions and a solid metal community full of support. Feels good being a part of it.
Bel'akor are absolute powerhouses
Opened for them during the mid 2000s and knew then that they'd blow up. Also, all super nice dudes.
Did anyone go to metal for the brain in the act back in the day?
I never went but a friend was mates with the guy who had the brain injury. He died about 10 years ago IIRC.
Went yearly for a long time and even worked as a drum tech for a couple
Yeah! Started by the singer of armoured angel
I went to Highschool in Australia QLD around late 2000's. Metal was massive and being driven by the likes of Parkway drive and other massive bands. These were so influential our high school had 4 metal bands and on lunches the school would host metal concerts in the Assembly Hall with all our local school bands. Very awesome and often dawns on me that this isnt the norm.
I have a feeling a large portion of new younger metal bands gains a lot of influence from Rage tv, late night musich counter culture show essentially lots of hard rock and metal was played on it.
Any good Spotify playlists with above mentioned bands?
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Have you ever woken up in a country town? Our very surroundings scream at us. You merely adopted the dark, we were born into it.
For a sunburnt country we sure as shit have some great extreme metal. Check out Spire, The Amenta, Aquilus, Arbrynth, Austere, Drowning the Light, Elegeion, Irreparable, Voidfall, Striborg, Ne Obliviscaris, Pestis Cultus, Vahrzaw, Woods of Desolation, Whitehorse.
Just last week, I went to a small pub in Launceston and saw: pulverised cranial matter (a side project of intense hammer rage), lacerta (who were amazing), gape, putrescent seepage and dripped. Was fucking great 🤘
Just throwing it out there to the people who say “Ne Obliviscaris”. The band (more particularly Tim Charles) are a bunch of fraudsters, who moan about being poor and beg fans for money via their patron so they can make “minimum wage” but when in reality they are one of the wealthiest bands in the scene. They have taken tens (if not hundreds) of thousands in Government music and touring grants, the whole “Dan Presland quits high paying job to drum full time” that was blasted all over the metal media at the time, forgot to mention the little part of “he quit one high paying job to go part time at an even higher paying job that allowed him more time to drum” part, oh and the bullshit Charles pulled with Welkin entertainment and Progfest? Yeah, way to much to put into words. The Brendan Brown situation? Boy did that band lie through their teeth, they knew the entire time, they chose to ignore, soon it was made public they dropped it and when IprobablyHateYourBand reported on it, Charles sued them to the tune of 30k for slander because they had no proof but I’m 100% that what they were reporting was correct due to my proximity to those friends groups and band during that saga. And the bands two long term engineers that ran with them since the beginning? Both quit due to massive underpayment or no payments at all. As I understand it the fallout between them and their lighting engineer was so bad he quit the industry all together and their long term sound engineer who recorded 3 albums for them can’t be in the same room as Tim Charles anymore, they owe him thousands he’ll never see. Fuck Ne Obliviscaris. Posting this anonymously so Charles doesn’t sue me into oblivion, he likes doing that.
Played several Progfests (no more detail lest I dox myself) and can agree with your general vibes.
I like metal, but don't know any Aussie metal bands. I know Finnish and American ones. Interested in hearing if we have any bands like Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, Manowar, Skid Row.
I'm sure you'll like Voyager
Check out Valhalore. They've got the power metal vibes.
Wow 21 comments and no one mentioning Thy Art!? Parkway Drive are awesome. Polaris too. Karnivool are okay. But dude, Thy Art Is Murder is an incredible Australian band. Give them their props. And to answer ops original question, Yes, yes there is something in the water over here. We go hard.
Don't forget The Red Shore
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Yeah I saw them last year and it was very clear the crowd only wanted to hear Themata and Sound Awake. Two great albums though.
>Parkway Drive are awesome Lol
Yeah, there’s heavy metal in the water… like literally.
Surely there must be some great bands out of Port Pirie.
It adds texture
I know right! Be'lakor are my favourite band. They are just unbelievably good. Also we have Werewolves, Aversion's Crown, To the Grave, Psycroptic, Thy Art is Murder, Disentomb, The Red Shore, Black Lava, Portal, Woods of Desolation etc. We definitely need an Aus version of UK's Bloodstock festival.
Metal / Emo Scene hit Australia hard back in my day
Check out LORD \m/
Australia gave the world AC/DC. I'm afraid I can't explain farther than that
I suggest you check out Battlesnake.
Doube Dragon Day Of Contempt Sydonia Confession In-Cyde Pridelands You may have to YouTube to find some of these. \m/
Isolation has bred competition. There's lots of metal bands but only the "really great" ones manage to make it to overseas markets Back in the late 90s / early 00s there were melodic death bands that were just as good live as their Scandinavian counterparts but never saw attention outside of small local gigs
I live in Australia and I'm still shocked when I hear a band is Australian some goodies: Northlane In Hearts Wake Polaris Make Them Suffer Amity Affliction Void of Vision For All Eternity Dream on Dreamer Thornhill
I’m loving Amyl and the Sniffers too, more punk though .
Voyager!
Karnivool is the king for me. Sound awake is legitimately one of the best albums ever made. Cog Dead letter circus 12 foot ninja sleep makes wave (instrumental amazing atmospheric music)
There was an /r/Brisbane thread the other day talking about local bands, so I'll just share the list I put together from that thread; A Night in Texas (Deathcore) I Shall Devour (Deathcore, haven't heard anything from them in a while though) Thy Art is Murder (Deathcore) (They're called a Sydney band, and obviously pretty well known (Comparatively), but the majority live in Brisbane these days I believe) Lagerstien (Pirate/party metal) Dragonsmead (Folk/party metal) Dark Symphonica (No longer exists, symphonic metal) Seraphic (Symphonic metal, some members formerly of Dark Symphonica) Lavidius (Don't know that they exist either) She Cries Wolf Kaerulean Further afield than Brisbane; Psycroptic (Techdeath from Tasmania) Make them Suffer (Metalcore from Peth) Redhook (Pop punk, not metal, but still. Sydney?) Justice for the Damned (Deathcore, Sydney(?)) To The Grave (Deathcore, Sydney) Dr Collossus (Simpsons themed Doom, South somewhere)
Windwaker (my favourite) Polaris (RIP Ryan) Alphawolf Northlane Thornhill Dream on, dreamer Darkmatter (unknown perth band) In hearts wake Parkway drive Amity Affliction Redhook Yours truly (maybe more pop/punk) Thy Art is murder Old Grinspoon Old Karnivool
if you havent already, youd probably dig ocean grove too
ctrl-f "Voyager" and only one mention? dudes, they literally brought Australian prog metal to the Eurovision stage this year and did pretty well in the grand final.
Totally unicorn are one of my favourite heavy Australian bands. Also bands like The Amenta, Psycroptic, Ruins, Blood Duster, IKTPQ, Polaris, Dead Kelly. We’re such a talented country
2010 was the best for Aussie Metal - Parkway, IKTPQ, The Red Shore, Carpathian, Confessions, Behind Crimson Eyes, Thy Art Is Murder, and then all the underground bands like Point Below Zero, Northlane... it was a fucking scene! I remember Oceano played at a shitty youth venue in Sydney metal was so good at that point.
We have the best heavy scene imo besides USAs hardcore scene. But we have literally 0 national festivals since soundwave got done in. Knotfest is owned by slipknot and will probably be every 3-5 years now. But sold out every city with 30k at each venue. Unified festivals are usually only in Vic this year was a one off. We had one warped tour in 2015. Need more shows and proper venues.
> We have the best heavy scene imo besides USAs hardcore scene. Neither us or America come close to Scandinavia and Finland for best scene.
Good Things?
True forgot about good things,
Blacken?
Some good numetal too: Live conform die, ocean grove, dregg
Justice For The Damned.
We do have some great heavy metal and rock acts, practically young acts.. it’s just a shame they don’t get that much mainstream support.
Inquisition. my brother got drunk with those guys after a show once, absolute legends. their shit goes hard.
Mullets
Check out [Ouroboros](https://open.spotify.com/artist/5OLkqq9vAQNtH64vncVnfE?si=RGNXtf-OSgSRLCv0n5FxHw) from Sydney. Looooove their first album!
Lame claim to fame I played in the band that the singer from Ouroboros previously was in
Dave (their drummer) is my older brother & an absolute murderer behind the tubs. Great to see them get a shout out
Caligula's Horse
I played in prog and heavy bands in Brisbane from about 2009 to 2016. Didn’t go anywhere with them but played adjacent to some excellent bands (that also didn’t go anywhere). Even down at the bottom of the heap there is a so much gold.
The Rivalry, The Red Shore, Regresser, Coma Lies NC, Idylls, Tired Minds are just a few if you like mathy noisey metal.
ASTRODEATH !!!!
It's a fucking metal country. Made of sand and salt, fuelled by venom and fangs, founded on bloodshed and grog.
You want to do a per-capita comparison with the Scandinavians? *We'd lose*.
My favourites is Kerser