The early ‘70s have had Australians flocking to the musical anarchy of loud and distorted guitars, with most songs existing at an underground level for around two decades. However, by the early 2000s, heavy music in Australia had evolved and transformed into what we are accustomed to today, particularly its “scene”.
The definition of the “scene” is a general term, not truly defined by one specific sound, but it is a subculture of like-minded bands and fans connected by an ethos of camaraderie, commitment, and community. Today, however, this “scene” is a transformative force with Unify Gathering as a powerful festival force with Triple J worships metalcore and insanely trendy merchandise drops selling out faster than a Supreme capsule in stock.
Whether you’re looking for technical death metal, floor-punching hardcore, or anthemic metalcore, a wide variety of dizzying sub-genres have embraced the heavy music family for years now. So, over the course of these crucial songs, let’s take a dive into the history and evolution of Australian heavy music.
AC/DC: ‘Long Way To The Top’ (1973)
It’d be unwise to kick off an Australian heavy music list without including AC/DC since they are the rock dogs who established the country’s need for hard rock that was both relentless and reckless. ‘Long Way To The Top’ is a song unmatched in its influence and is a classic that is the first marker in heavy music history. AC/DC is even touted as an influential band that impacted the Australian pop music evolution throughout the ages as their music drowns in a fusion of heavy and pop punk to some extent.
Armoured Angel: ‘Madame Guillotine’ (1989)
Armoured Angel hailed from Canberra as they pushed the limits of thrash metal in their very early stages, which became one of the earliest acts to perform what we call today “death metal”. ‘Madame Guillotine’ was released in 1989, and it was among the most gruesome and evocative take on the genre, which bled with brutality and insanity. If you’re hearing the UNFD label offering on the radio, it wouldn’t be out of the norm to hear The Rubens and Vera Blue these days, but when Armoured Angel was around, Australian metal was occupying a very underground realm.
Armoured Angel was a pioneering grassroots band as they founded Metal For The Brain Festival and built a cult-like following that saw them tour with Carcass and Morbid Angel, before eventually making it onto the Big Day Out stage in 1993.
Nitrocris: ‘Anger’ (1994)
Nitocris is known to be one of Australia’s founding members of the “grot-grrrl” scene, which is the country’s equivalent of the ‘90s “riot grrrl” movement. However, they became more pop-driven in terms of radio rock sound later on as Nitocris was marked as a bona-fide heavy rock figure.
‘Anger’ was released in 1994, and it was a slow-burning, sludgy music that recounts the likes of Soundgarden and Pantera similar to L7 and Bikini Kill, which features a dissonant kind of hard rock riffage and strong riot grrrl vocals. As they called it a day in 2001, they were, at multiple times, catching the attention of Channel V, storming the stages of Big Day Out several times, which marked their history as a unique heavy rock outfit in Australian music history.
Sunk Loto: ‘Everything Everyway’ (2003)
In the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, nu-metal and alternative were the dominant scenes that graced the stages of Big Day Out, with epic acts such as Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, and Korn, which satiated the pangs of hunger of sun-weary Australian youth. Initially, however, the genre didn’t have much pizazz locally, but forming nu-metal’s prime years, Sunk Loto were the ones to burst out of the gates to deliver down-tuned funk bass pop, with killer melodies and deadly riffage.
The track ‘Everything Everyway’ is a combination of smooth melodies of Incubus with the scenic colors of the Deftones chord progression and the loitering whispers of Tool. Sunk Loto disbanded in 2007 after two studio albums.
Karnivool: ‘Themata’ (2005)
Karnivool is the resident prog-demons of Western Australia, having given one of the most longstanding and impressive careers in Australian heavy music. Capturing an eerie yet eccentric image and sound, Australia’s answer to Tool developed a cult-like following years before releasing their crucial debut called ‘Themata’ in 2005. Coming off the tail end of nu-metal’s scene, Themata’s track is a sprawling instrumental that weaves through ebbs and flows in multiple directions before an explosion of triumph and sonic oasis can be heard.
Conclusion
Although not an exhaustive list, this has been a brief look on Australia’s heavy music scene in the past few decades or so. From AC/DC to Sunk Loto, it is primed to have a plethora of genres encompassing subcultures of musical inventions and tracks that will blow your mind.
