HEAVY Music Interviews

Interview by Angela Croudace For more than 25 years, The Used have built their legacy on chaos, catharsis and connection, but in 2026, they’re stepping into entirely new territory with a landmark performance at the Sydney Opera House. Taking place on March 29, the one-night-only event, titled A Mid Summer Night’s Symphony, will see the band joined by a full orchestra and choir for the first time i...

Interview by Ali Williams Trying to kick off an interview while your tech does that fun little “betrayal at the worst possible moment” routine is a very modern way to start talking to the frontman of Obscura. Thankfully, Steffen Kummerer was unbothered, cheerful, and immediately in touring mode, calling in from Munich while the band’s next moves were already stacked: flying to the US on Sunday, de...

Interview by Ali Williams Some interviews kick off with grand statements about art and purpose. This one started with me trying to bully the internet into a split-screen format while Matt from Grim Rhythm sat there, politely hungover and fully accepting his fate. The reason for the state of him? The band’s second album had dropped the day before, which apparently required a studio party that ran a...

The Last Ten Seconds of Life were forged in 2010. Within a year, they were touring regularly and had self-released their debut album, Know Your Exits. By 2013, they unleashed their second album, Invivo [Exvivo], the prolific act would go on to release five more full lengths, each earning Billboard chart placements and reaping critical accolades both stateside and abroad.  With a total of 50+ tours...

Formed in Stockholm in 1983, Glorious Bankrobbers quickly earned notoriety for their uncompromising sound and electrifying live performances. Their 1984 debut, produced by Kee Marcello (Easy Action/Europe), marked the arrival of a band destined to push boundaries. By 1989, the group cemented their place in rock history with Dynamite Sex Doze—a landmark release that became a cornerstone of Swedish...

Interview by Ali Williams If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to fly the classic hard-rock flag out of a country where Bollywood runs the audio monopoly, Girish and the Chronicles have the answer: persistence, volume, and a deep love of the big-chorus, big-guitar stuff that got most of us into this mess in the first place. Ali’s chat with bassist Yogi quickly locks into the band’s origin story,...

Melbourne based progressive death metal outfit Growth began in 2017 as a reflective space for brothers Tristan Barnes (guitar/bass/artwork) and Nelson Barnes (drums), and vocalist LF, later joined by Nick Rackham (bass) and Ben Boyle (guitar), to explore trauma, mental illness and grief without romanticising them. The project was never intended as catharsis for its own sake, but as a way to illust...

One of New Zealand’s fiercest rock exports, The Datsuns, will bring their all thrills and no frills brand of sleazy garage rock to their Australian fans next March. The Datsuns blazed into global consciousness with their 2002 self-titled debut, a record that topped the NZ charts and hurled them onto stages with Metallica, The White Stripes, and Queens of the Stone Age. Over the past two decades, t...

Finnish metal veterans Amorphis continue to evolve without losing their identity, guitarist Tomi Koivusaari explains in a candid interview about creativity, risk, and returning to Australia.  Balancing a 15-album catalogue and passionate fan expectations, the band still approaches setlists and songwriting with fresh intent. Koivusaari describes an instinctive, cinematic writing process shaped by n...

Echoes Festival, a new immersive celebration of post-rock, experimental, and cinematic heavy music, will make its debut on Saturday, May 9, 2026, taking over both Rhino Room and Lowlife Bar for one day and night. Curated for fans of expansive instrumental rock, post-metal, and boundary-pushing alternative music, Echoes Festival brings together an eclectic and powerful lineup of interstate and loca...

Interview by Ali Williams Alien Weaponry might have been speaking to HEAVY from Barcelona only a couple of hours after leaving the stage, but there was nothing flat about the energy. If anything, the interview captured a band running on that familiar touring cocktail of adrenaline, sleep deprivation and sheer gratitude for being able to do the thing in the first place.  Midway through a European r...

Photo by Matthew Hedges Internationally renowned Lutruwita/Tasmanian genuine sideshow freak Samora Squid will be doing an hour of their most full-on material for SQUID’S SUNDAY SIDESHOW, a DIY punk residency at famed Naarm/Melbourne venue The Tote, and don’t say you weren’t warned. Sword swallowing. Live piercing. Extreme contortion. A Samora Squid show is shocking, confronting, hilarious and not...

Thrash metal titans ANTHRAX return to Australia later this month for four huge shows. Bold and uncompromising, ANTHRAX stands as one of the legendary “Big Four” of thrash, a band whose breakneck riffs and mosh-pit anthems have shaped heavy music for over four decades. On their 2026 Australian tour, ANTHRAX will ignite stages in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, performing a career-spanning...

Rock sensation THE GEMS return with their second album Year Of The Snake, out on March 13, 2026.  The Swedish trio solidifies their position as a strong player in modern hard rock with Year Of The Snake. Their very first single, Like A Phoenix, instantly hit #2 on the German Rock Radio Airplay Charts and they impressed both fans and critics with their debut record Phoenix (2024). With one album un...

In support or their the long-overdue debut album ‘The World Is Not Yours’, Melbourne based purveyors of blackened grinding death, MUNT embark on a spiteful nine show Australian east coast throughout March and April of 2026. Supported by death / groove churners Nembutolik, this promises to be a local tour not to be missed. Across thirteen relentless tracks on The World Is Not Yours, MUNT forges bla...

The Final Fall have never been a band to rush things. Instead, they have always written and released material when they are ready and feel like they have something relevant and important to say. After a prolongued period of inactivity, The Final Fall resurfaced in 2024 with the single Sold, reminding fans and music punters alike of the depth of their talent and the diversity within their music. At...

Interview by Angela Croudace Fresh from a powerful return to the region in 2024, Faroese artist Eivør is set to bring her first-ever headline tour of Australia this March, marking a long-anticipated homecoming of sorts. After opening for Heilung last year, the experience left a lasting imprint on the singer, who describes the visit as the fulfilment of a long-held dream and the catalyst for return...

For the first time ever, the Sydney Guitar Show will take over Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 March 2026, delivering two super-sized days of guitar gear, live performances, workshops and immersive experiences celebrating the world’s most popular instrument. The 2026 program features performances, workshops and conversations with some of the most exciting and innovative guitarists i...

Interview by Angela Croudace Fresh off the release of his latest single Relapse, Sydney singer-songwriter Hayden McGoogan is writing from a place of hard-won clarity. Penned just after a month into sobriety, the stripped-back track captures a fragile headspace: doing well, but fearing it could all unravel. “It’s not about relapsing,” he explains. “It’s about hoping I don’t.” Recorded live with a f...

When British extreme metal legends CRADLE OF FILTH and American metal titans DEVILDRIVER, two of heavy music’s most iconic and ferocious bands - each with a stellar reputation for incredible live shows - joined forces for a North American tour in 2023 the results were predictably amazing and the synergy undeniable. Now Australia will  finally experience this much lauded team-up in July of this yea...

UK progressive death metal outfit CRYPTIC SHIFT released their Overspace & Supertime full-length on February 27 through Metal Blade Records. While not commonly known as an extraterrestrial hotspot, Leeds faced an encounter of another kind in 2015 when vocalist/guitarist Alexander Bradley and drummer Ryan Sheperson set out to accomplish a project embodying their joint passion for the art of sci...

Interview by Ali Williams Samy Elbanna of Lost Society caught up with HEAVY's Ali Williams to talk about all things dark and the journey of coming out the other side. Their chat feels less like a promo interview and more like a long, honest exhale. There’s humour, perspective, and the unmistakable tone of someone who’s been through the grinder, come out the other side, and is now enjoying the simp...

Since forming in Orlando, FL in 2018, Magnolia Park - vocalist Joshua Roberts, guitarists Tristan Torres and Freddie Criales, drummer Joe Horsham and bassist Vincent Ernst - have repeatedly proven themselves to be one of the most exciting and forward-thinking groups in the underground. Spinning a chameleonic, genre-spanning sound that incorporates punk, hard rock, hip-hop and metalcore into a dizz...

Interview by Ali Williams Necrofier are in that familiar pre-release purgatory where everything important is finished and everything annoying begins. When HEAVY caught up with Christian Larson (guitar, vocals), it was early, coffee was scarce on both sides of the planet, and the band’s third full-length was suddenly two weeks from release. No drama, no manufactured hype. Just the calm chaos of a b...

A relentless force in the underground scene, Brisbane metal outfit Dreamkillers are known for their raw intensity, genre-defying sound, and fiercely DIY ethos. Fusing thrash, English punk and melodic metal into a sonic assault that is both unrelenting and emotionally charged, while still maintaining a surprising sing-along quality, Dreamkillers continue to evolve without compromise. That evolution...