By Steven Jenkins
For over 15 years now Unearth have been creating monstrous metalcore that has seen six studio albums, countless international tours and a legion of fans worldwide. Now for the first time since 2012, they’re back in Australia supporting Egyptian inspired death metal pioneers Nile, along with our very own Whoretopsy and Feed Her To The Sharks. We caught up with drummer Nick Pierce and spoke to him about what the band has in store for us on this massive upcoming tour.
“It’s going to be dope, when I first saw the lineup and noticed that we were playing with Nile I straight away thought this is going to be a sweet tour. I’m a big fan of George Kollias and his drumming, I used to listen to them a lot in my younger days and sharing the stage with such a legendary band will be very cool indeed.”
Nick joined the band just over three years ago and hasn’t looked back since. He fits like a glove and brings a heavier element with drumming so fast and precise you’ve got to see it to believe it. He tells of how he became a member and what it was like to come here as a fresh face of Unearth back in 2012.
“Some of my first shows with Unearth were in late 2011; I did some stuff in Japan and Alaska with them. Then we did a US tour with Chimaira, which was pretty huge, and then I officially became a member as of 2012. Soundwave 2012 was the first time I had been to Australia and I was still new to the band at that point. It was great, that was an incredible experience being in a different continent and the whole vibe there was really cool. We were up against Slipknot if I remember correctly, so that was a bit rough you know? But we made it work. We’re very excited to come back to Australia; it’s a beautiful country.”
Eager fans have been waiting and waiting for Unearth to return with their punishing performance ever since those festival shows, what took them so long to get back here? It’s not easy and it’s usually reasons beyond their control as Nick explains.
“We had tried to come back there earlier, we did a little run over in Japan and Singapore at the beginning of the year sort of hoping it would eventuate into an Australian run of shows. But it just never came to life because of schedules and travelling which was a bit disappointing, but we finally made it.”
With a mixed bill of technical death metal, metalcore, brutal death metal and heavy metal sometimes fans will complain that a certain band does not belong on a certain line up. We at HEAVY embrace all styles of metal and we sure are excited to see such a diverse group of bands show off their talent in what will sure to be an experience you don’t always get to witness.
“I think with the new album we kind of went into the direction of a little more brutal, a little more aggressive. The songs from the new album will definitely fit in with the crowd I think, it should make the people who like their music really heavy happy hopefully. I think we’ve set ourselves aside from the ‘metalcore’ tag so to speak since putting out Watchers Of Rule. It’s a little more groove orientated than Nile per se, but it’s definitely in the same vain and we always put 100% into our shows with a lot of intensity. I don’t the kids will be discouraged but having us on the bill, it’s going to be pretty crazy.”
“We’ll be doing a mixture of old and new, we’ve got to keep the classics in there of course. I think we’ll be playing maybe three or four tracks from the new album because of the tour and whatnot and playing to that sort of crowd means things are going to be a little more extreme. Each album has its own hit so we try and pick and choose the best tracks that we have to offer to play live, so that it becomes more enticing.”
“Come out, have a good time and check us out, listen to our latest album if you haven’t already so you can get a sense of what we’re like. It’ll be a big party so definitely join us and enjoy the shows.”
Tour Dates – Nile + Unearth + Feed Her To The Sharks + Whoretopsy
19 November – Max Watts, Brisbane 18+
20 November – Manning Bar, Sydney 18+
21 November – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne 18+
22 November – Capitol, Perth 18+***
***Feed Her To The Sharks not performing
Tickets Available here
