The Descendents
It took over 30 years for legendary, and legendarily inactive, Californian pop punk band The Descendents to tour Australia. Now they’re coming back after two years. HEAVY asks front man and punk icon Milo Auckerman what’s up. “I feel like the last time we were there I was struggling a bit, and I wanted to […]
Heavyfest From The Photo Pit
Marking the 1st year anniversary for Australia’s definitive Heavy Metal magazine HEAVY was always destined to be a superb night. So it was with great pleasure that I accepted the invitation to attend tonight’s celebrations (camera in tow of course!) Hosted at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel and featuring a slew of Australia’s finest Metal bands such […]
Bad Religion
Intellectual, outspoken and deliberate – but still entirely punk rock – Greg Graffin is one of rock’s overachievers. Greg Graffin’s career is indeed legendary. For almost three and a half decades he has fronted one of America’s greatest punk rock acts, Bad Religion – a band that have just released musical masterpiece number 16. “After […]
Shai Hulud
Known for incorporating progressive and metallic influences, hardcore punk band Shai Hulud are about to unleash a new album and descend upon an unsuspecting Australian public at Soundwave. The United States of America is a very big country. Even mainland US, without even counting Alaska and Hawaii, is slightly larger than Australia in square kilometres. […]
Every Time I Die
US hardcore/punk act Every Time I Die will stand out from the crowd as one of the only heavy acts at this year’s Big Day Out. With Soundwave attracting the attention of our country’s heavy music fans, the Big Day Out can get a little lost. Still, the longer running summer festival isn’t a complete […]
Ensiferum
What do you think of when you hear the words ‘folk metal?’ Dragons? Vikings? Mead? Well the genre has all this and more (but mainly mead). For Finnish act Ensiferum, folk metal is dressing up, putting on war paint and singing their mighty medieval themed songs to their fans. In between shows on Ensiferum’s current […]
Alestorm ‘Live at the End of the World’ DVD Shoot
Scottish pirate metal legends Alestorm stormy raid of Australian harbours started off by transforming Swanston Street into Port Royal in the Caribbean of the 17th century. There they were since the early hours in the evening: buccaneers and privateers with their distinctive hats, companion parrots, puffy shirts and bottles of rum filled with expectations of […]
Alice Through The Windshield Glass
Apocalypse dodgers Alice Through The Windshield Glass managed to avert a crisis just in time to unleash a killer debut album. Ah, synchronicity. Having avoided, thus far, any interest in the so-called Mayan ‘end of world’ prediction, I find myself filing an interview on the ‘end of days’ deadline: December 21. The cracker is that […]
Sabaton Live @ The Corner Hotel, Melbourne, Australia
Swedish metal warriors Sabaton chose Melbourne to host their only headline show from their first tour ‘Down Under’, supporting Nightwish. Local metal community responded with all their might: massive support, with an impressive queue of avid punters forming around the venue since early in the evening. Opening acts couldn’t possibly be more appropriate. First on […]
Complete Failure: The Art Gospel Of Aggravated Assault
Also affectionately known as ComFail, this 4 piece falls stylistically between straight up grind and hardcore punk, with a fairly decent grasp on both facets. Reminiscent of Misery Index at times, the tracks are punchy and aggressive but are hampered by an eager bass drum production that overwhelms when in full flight. This makes the […]
Blockheads: The World Is Dead
Grindcore isn’t everyones first choice of tunes for the car ride to school/work but for those of us who need a shot of adrenaline in the morning – we reach for the fury of blast beats religiously. Blockheads have been grinding hard for 20 years and their experience is evident in the inventive & frantic […]
Pig Destroyer
American grindcore luminaries Pig Destroyer had the roughest slog of their career to arrive at new record Book Burner, but you wouldn’t be able tell when you listen to the twisted grind monster. “It was the toughest experience we’ve been through.” Pig Destroyer vocalist J.R. Hayes says of the process of writing and recording their […]
Nightwish
Australia loves Nightwish, and Nightwish loves Australia, so they are returning for their third tour of our nation very shortly, after what has been a massive period of success, experimentation and turmoil for these Finnish symphonic metal masters. Late 2011 saw the release of their epic seventh album, the concept piece known as Imaginaerum, which […]
Heavy Interviews The 69 Eyes
Finnish vampire rocker Jyrki 69 steps into the light to share some words about the band’s latest releases. Your new album X Very excited! I mean this is our first ever Australian release. None of our records have been released in Australia before and this is our tenth album so it’s about time. This [might […]
