ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 2 AUGUST 2022
The band with the coolest name in Australian extreme music has had a mixed twelve months. After releasing an EP they weren’t able to properly promote, Nicolas Cage Fighter then signed a deal with a US label, released a new album last week and are about to head out on an east coast tour.
“We had all this momentum coming off the EP last year,” says guitarist Justin Ellis, “and we got signed to Metal Blade but we had no shows to play, we had nothing to back it up. So what should have been a good year – it was still a good year for us – what should have been a massive year for us, was burnt out a little bit because we just couldn’t do anything. This year feels lucky though. We’re back on track.”
Their year of fluctuating fortunes began with the release of Cast You Out, an EP the Ballarat brusiers had been building up to for quite some time. The hype leading up to it, caused perhaps as much just by their simply awesome name as by their reputation for bone-jarring and flesh-shredding hardcore-laced groove and death metal, lead to interest from legendary LA label Metal Blade..
“We go out, if we get sick, we get sick, but it’s not going to stop us going out and playing shows.”
Justin Ellis
“One of the guys from Blacklight Media contacted us,” Ellis explains. “Blacklight Media is a subsidiary label to Metal Blade. He contacted us and asked what we were doing, [and] was interested in having a chat. At the time, we didn’t think too much of it. We didn’t really know who was contacting us, so we said ‘Yeah no worries.’ Then we got followed up with an email from Metal Blade and we were like, ‘Fuck – this is pretty serious!’”
He laughs, but not because it’s a joke. It’s a very auspicious attachment that very few Australian bands can claim.
“They came and had a chat with us and sent us a deal with what they were thinking, and we just went from there and everything’s just worked out. We were really happy with what they were offering us and what we wanted to do as a band. After we put the EP out we decided that we just want to keep going now. We’ve got a lot of new music we want to put out and it all snowballed from there. They’re an awesome crew. They really look after us and we’re still blown away that they’ve picked up this metal band from Ballarat!”
The signing only gave them further incentive to keep new music coming. Border closures and lockdowns have helped to put an end to quite a few bands over the past couple of years, but Ellis and Nicolas Cage Fighter were never in any doubt. If anything, it made this tightly-knit unit even more solid.
“It feels like we just got stronger during that time,” vouches the guitarist. “A lot of bands just fizzled out because of the toll emotionally and all that sort of stuff. We’re all good friends of ten-plus years, so we’re a pretty tight group of dudes, so we were just getting through it. We were just getting new music out and trying not to let anything bother us. There was times where it was tough when we weren’t able to go out and play shows, but we sort of knew that eventually it was all going to happen, so it was just a matter of getting through it.”
Getting through it they have, with a blistering new album of life-affirming metal called The Bones That Grew From Pain. An appropriately titled release for the times we all find ourselves in, the phrase came to Ellis while he was on the road.
“I don’t even remember when I came up with the album title. I was just driving along one day and just sort of said it out loud. I just veered off the road and stopped for a second and thought, I need to write that down! Basically it sort of follows on from the EP. That was based around dealing with your own personal problems, whereas this one’s sort of about the world around you and how that can impact you and affect you. It’s a lot about aggression and addiction and the impact that we are having on the world. There’s a fair bit going on in it.”
With most of the band coming from a hardcore background, it’s not surprising that positivity and finding strength from suffering informs their music.
“We’re writing about dark stuff that everyone goes through and trying to pull positives out of it,” Ellis says. “We’re not [necessarily] advocates for good mental health, but we’re talking about things that people deal with every day.”
International attention for The Bones That Grew From Pain with the weight of one the world’s most legendary metal labels behind it should bring Nicolas Cage Fighter further recognition for their music as much as for their name. Not that having such a glorious name had given them too many headaches, even if some people don’t get the joke.
“I think a lot of people see the name and think ‘Fuck, I better check this out!’,” Ellis says with evident amusment. “A lot of people look at it and don’t understand at all! It’s a bit of a pisstake. It doesn’t really mean anything at all, but for the most part I think it works in our favour. People see that and think, ‘Fuck, I better suss this out.’”
Touring and playing live is now highest on the band’s agenda. Frustration and disappointment at being unable to do shows on the back of Cast You Out is something the guitarist keeps coming back to, but August will see them blazing through venues along the east coast.
“We put [the EP] out, couldn’t do anything with it, people were stuck out home listening to it on their streaming services. We never got to do a proper EP launch or anything, so it feels awesome to put the album out and back it up with a big tour.”
Despite the COVID pandemic remaining in full force, Nicolas Cage Fighter are no longer prepared to just sit it out. Like many performers, they’re willing to take their chances and get back amongst it even if it means gambling against the spicy cough.
“We just got to the point where we thought, we can’t just sit around and not do anything,” Ellis says. “We go out, if we get sick, we get sick, but it’s not going to stop us going out and playing shows.”
IMAGE: Jayden Pitts
