90% Bodyjar have always been a glimmer of Americanised melodic pop-punk in Australia, ruling the punk roost in one way or another since finding recognition amongst the boom of skate punk in…
SWEDISH MAGAZINES – I Wish Life Could Be…
90% In the early 00s, punk rockers The Swedish Magazines were something of a fixture on the inner-Melbourne scene, cementing a good reputation and playing shows with bands like Cosmic Psychos where…
DESCENT – Order of Chaos
85% Brisbane based Descent are among a group of excellent metal of all kinds making their way out of Australia’s underground into broader notice – at least until the world when arse up….
BACKTRACKIN’: Escape – Adelaide’s Forgotten Metal Heroes
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 23 OCTOBER 2013 Canberra-based film maker Michael Kraaz has been developing a documentary on one of Australia’s greatest unrecorded metal bands. Escape: The Great Unsigned is the story of Gawler’s most legendary…
ASTRIAAL: Return of the Dark
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 28 MAY 2012 Brisbane black metal battalion Astriaal have been silent since making some brief appearances in early 2011. As winter settles over the country, the band returns to the…
AVERSIONS CROWN: Dare to be Different
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 29 AUGUST 2012 Eight-string guitar-favouring Brisbane deathcore bruisers Aversions Crown aim to craft a more technical slant on what has been a much-criticised genre. Having released their debut album Servitude last year,…
BACKTRACKIN’: Allegiance – Perth’s Thrash Legends
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 4 JULY 2013 Perth writer James Birkin gives us this retrospective on one of Australia’s greatest thrash bands – Allegiance! Formed in 1990, Perth band Allegiance were an institution to…
BACKTRACKIN’: Taramis – Melbourne’s Early Metal Titans
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 17 OCTOBER 2010 Taramis were one of the very early contenders on the Australian metal scene in the 1980s, and just like other early local groups like Nothing Sacred, Taipan…
LAGERSTEIN – Live in Brisbane
75% Pirate metal is the weird and weirdly popular off-shoot of folk metal, which is often just as strange. Lagerstein are by far Australia’s sharpest and wildest exponents at this caper and…
Winter Magic Revival Festival, Katoomba
Katoomba High School & Baroque Room, Katoomba. 26 – 27 August, 2022 Katoomba’s Winter Magic Festival was once one of the biggest regional festivals in New South Wales. As recently as 2018…