HEAVY Music Interviews

Interview by Kris Peters There are very few bands in the world of music that push themselves to the extremes like Mushroomhead. Their music draws from pretty much all genres of metal known to man, with sprinkles of punk, hip/hop, electronica and God knows what else thrown in for good measure. And what's more is they make it work. While not unique in their amalgamation of musical influences, Mushro...

Interview by Kris Peters New Zealand-hailing, Melbourne-based heavy outfit Banks Arcade have always been a band who colour just outside the lines of acceptance, believing their fresh and unique outlook on the accepted parameters of music was worthy of stepping into the light of its own volition. Over a series of EP's - starting with 2018s Endnote - Banks Arcade consistently refuse to tiptoe around...

Interview by Kris Peters Musical bonds forged over many years in the industry are almost an essential part of surviving and thriving in the cut-throat world of music. While friends and fans come and go, the mutual respect afforded band members and their bandmates is a constant despite the many troughs associated with the highs and lows of an industry that is fickle at best. It becomes an us agains...

Interview by Kris Peters Heavy metal and blues music have a long history that is ignored by some and refuted by others, but when push comes to shove there can be no denying the two genres can not only co-exist in the same musical realm, but also owe much of their existence to the influence of the other. This is perhaps no more evident than in the case of New Orleans sludge metal outfit EYEHATEGOD,...

Interview by Kris Peters It's hard to believe that two of rocks biggest musical exports of the last quarter of a century have never toured Australia before.  With a combined tenancy of 50 years, ORGY and COLD are loved and revered the world over for a succession of singles including Blue Monday, Stitches, Stupid Girl and Suffocate to scratch the surface, but it is the bands' respective albums Cand...

Interview by Kris Peters One look at any press release from Brisbane rock outfit Full Flower Moon Band and you know everything you need to know about their music in two words. Babyshakes Dillon. Just try and tell me that a band whose frontperson proudly wears that monicker is anything but the real deal. In all honesty when I first came across Full Flower Moon Band and was asked to speak with the b...

Interview by Kris Peters In a world where the lines between light and shade are being constantly shifted, it is refreshing to come across a band who embrace life to its fullest while still enjoying the many and varied excesses a musical lifestyle offers. Described as a pure glam slam boogie woogie rock n roll outfit, Omaha's The Midnight Devils are a breath of fresh air on the global music scene,...

Interview by Kris Peters They say good things come to those who wait, and if that's the case, Gold Coast melodic technical death metal outfit Snake Mountain have some damn fine times ahead of them. Rather than trying to force themselves onto the international support rollercoaster from the outset, Snake Mountain have preferred to bide their time, practising, waiting, and networking until they felt...

No matter the existing strength, quality or back catalogue of a band - and regardless of their past successess - there is ALWAYS a defining moment in their career that makes what may or may not have come before seem trivial and insignificant. While that moment may come in a number of different forms, it is generally a groundbreaking performance or an album so good it defies even internal expectati...

Interview by Kris Peters Fifty years of service to any industry is a remarkable effort, but when that industry happens to be the cut-throat one of music, then that achievement takes on ever greater credence. The Angels have long been an institution on the Australian music scene, with their high-energy brand of rock transcending generations of music lovers across this country and beyond. The band h...

Interview by Kris Peters Twenty years in any position is worthy of long service reward, but when you manage to do that in the cut-throat and often thankless place called the music industry, then long service leave just doesn't cut the mustard. It is an industry that taxes the majority and rewards the few, but it is also one of the few things in the world that could loosely come under the term job...

Interview by Kris Peters Grunge fans rejoice as the raw energy of Nirvana returns to Australia! Direct from the UK, the world’s number one tribute to the Seattle legends, Nirvana Tribute, are making their way back to Aussie shores for their fourth visit, and for the first time will be hitting New Zealand as well to pay homage to, and celebrate the life of Kurt Cobain. Tribute bands are a dime-a-do...

nterview by Kris Peters What do you get when you cross a pro wrestler, a metal head and a penchant for cross-dressing? If you answered Ladybeard then you are 1000% correct. For there is only one. Because one walking ray of sunshine is all the world needs. Since blowing up the Japanese internet in 2014 and then taking on the world with his first single Nippon Manju the following year, Adelaide-born...

Interview by Kris Peters Last year's The World Is A Vampire festival might have been promoted as an internationally led concert event headlined by The Smashing Pumpkins, but for me, it will forever be remembered as the first time I saw or heard a Sydney band called Battlesnake. After a continual chorus of praise for the band from one of my friends there, I reluctantly peeled myself off the comfy i...

Interview by Kris Peters My first introduction to Apocalyptica was in 2007 through the song I'm Not Jesus, which featured Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor in an even more powerfully destructive performance than usual. And that's saying something. And that, in a nutshell, is the best thing about artists collaborating with different bands, often outside of their comfort zone. It allows music listeners...

Interview by Kris Peters Golden Robot Global Entertainment is a worldwide brand that prides itself on being home to some of the most legendary bands and up-and-coming artists in the world. Starting with just one band in 2015, the company has expanded quickly to meet demand and spans a multitude of genres and styles. They are a truly global network, with bands such as Filter, Orgy, The Answer, Shep...

Interview by Kris Peters Australian music was a melting pot of talent in the early 90s with bands like Tumbleweed, Regurgitator, Spiderbait, Magic Dirt and the Superjesus planting the initial seeds that would see them still knocking crowds dead to this day - some 30 years later. Punk upstarts the Hard-Ons were also a major player in the thriving scene, but it is an offshoot of that band - formed a...

Interview by Kris Peters JJ McCann is a musician well-travelled, negotiating over 30 years in the Australian music industry with his soul and integrity intact. Better known as one of the founding members of Nunchukka Superfly and his work with The Drones, McCann has busied himself with other just as talented bands over the years, with the one common denominator being McCann's driven approach to hi...

Interview by Kris Peters Not content with fronting one of this country's most loved rock outfits in Hammers or saddling up behind the kit with blues funk trio Hot Cobra, Gold Coast-based singer, songwriter and guitarist Lucas Stone has now thrown his considerable clout behind his solo project, recently releasing the wicked 5 track EP Deathbed. As if juggling two other bands with a hectic personal...

Interview by Kris Peters When it comes to iconic metal bands, they don't come much better than Flotsam & Jetsam. Since pummelling their way onto the scene with their crushing debut album Doomsday For The Deceiver almost 40 years ago, Flotsam & Jetsam have ridden the wave that is thrash metal almost too faithfully, preferring to remain loyal to the calling despite the perceived conforming o...

Interview by Kris Peters Grinspoon have flown the flag for Australian rock since bursting onto the scene after winning the Triple J Unearthed contest with the song Sickfest in 1995. They released their debut, self-titled EP that same year which included that song plus More Than You Are before unleashing their second EP Licker Bottle Cozy the following year, featuring Champion. In September 1997 Gr...

Interview by Kris Peters It has been a well deserved breakthrough 18-month period for Brisbane rock outfit PistonFist that saw the band not only deliver their debut album RedLine, but also power through support slots with Jane's Addiction, The Smashing Pumpkins, Cancer Bats, The Poor and Alice Cooper. Despite setbacks that threatened to blow their motor, PistonFist time and time again regrouped an...

Interview by Kris Peters They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and if that is true, then crushing extreme metal outfit Goatwhore will be earning themselves plenty of hugs when they return to Australia this July as part of the Turn Troubled Tables Tour with Eyehategod. Goatwhore have been absent from our shores for almost a decade, last venturing over to this side of world for a brutal run...

Interview by Kris Peters U.S metalcore outfit The Devil Wears Prada have had a golden run when it comes to touring this country. When they last came out with Polaris in 2017 demand for tickets was so high that the Sold Out sign was up far more than it was down, and within one week of announcing August's Half Living Things Tour with Alpha Wolf, The Devil Wears Prada, Invent Animate and thrown organ...

Interview by Kris Peters Melbourne rock outfit Shotgun Mistress arrived on the scene with a bullet following the 2021 release of their self-titled debut album that reinforced all known conceptions about the band, based purely on the high-octane suggestiveness of the name alone. Here was a band that bled rock and roll rather than one jumping on the back of an institution that oozes charm, strength...