Rock and/ or roll man! Twitter king AJ Maddah and his merry band of madness known as Soundwave will be opening circle pits this month. Australia has always boasted a great, earnest heavy scene. Soundwave is a great festival, and with heavy music sometimes swept under the mat in Australia it’s one big axe-slaying party for all the punk kids and metal heads alike. With so many stellar bands on the bill you may be fretting over who you want to see. Never fear, Happy is here! Here are ten bands you absolutely have to see.
Soundwave is back and is bigger, better and bolder than ever. With such an amazing list of punk and metal acts, we pick out the ten you just can’t miss!
King Parrot
King Parrot are one of those genuinely frightening metal bands. One of those generally frightening metal bands where you think to yourself hey this is generally quite unnerving, but I still fucking love it. King Parrot cram as much grind, punk, thrash and death metal as they can into a sporadic and brutal metal performance that will leave blood flowing from your ear canals. There is good reason why they have garnered so much love. They destroyed Soundwave last year with a blistering twenty minute set before headliners Mastodon. King Parrot have recently been extensively touring the states with Down and Orange Goblin and America is slowly becoming their home. Get stuck in.
Ne Obliviscaris
Ne Obliviscaris are an exciting symphonic black metal band, bringing you orchestral black metal of epic progressive proportions. Their music alone was enough to convince AJ Maddah to book them for every leg of the tour. To make things even more awesome Ne Obliviscaris brought French- Canadian tech-death extraordinaire’s Beyond Creation to our shores for their Australian debut. All you need to do is listen to the newly recorded Citadel to see just what the fuss is all about.
Killer Be Killed
Troy Sanders and David Elitch and Ben Weinman and Max Cavalera have joined forces to create what is basically the heavy metal power rangers. Killer Be Killed wrote a handful of songs that employ two tunings at once, they also forge together the voices of three of heavy music’s most powerful front-men. Soundwave also poses as their live debut. Australia…It will f*ck your face!
Lamb Of God
Lamb of God are well and truly the embodiment of southern influenced heavy metal and whisky soaked groove. Hell, Chris Adler is opening his own whiskey drinking restaurant in Richmond Virginia! Lamb of God are masters of the live performance and have been inspiring people to kick the living bejeezus out of each other since before 2001 along with nominations for some weird accolade called a Grammy and selling hundreds of thousands of records they also a band you have no choice but to respect. They are headlining the metal stage… it’s going to be a riot. Listen to Ashes of the Wake in the meantime.
Exodus
The new record from Exodus is the heaviest LP I’ve put through my ears in recent times. I say this in comparison to new opus’ from bands like Marduk, Segression and Venom. Not to mention they open up the pit with walls of death that mimic scenes from Braveheart. Get your head straight and see Exodus.
Fear Factory
Fear Factory are one of those bands that embody what visionaries hoped the metal movement wold evolve into. This is something most couldn’t yet comprehend in the days of first experimentation with the tri tone and the eventual pace and contusion that lead to heavy metal being used as colloquial name for music that sounds of massive sheets of metal being clanged together. Listen to the remastered version of Demanufacture and hear for yourself.
Animals As Leaders
Animals as Leaders are one of the most overwhelming talents in heavy music. The band is famous for incorporating jazz fusion elements in their instrumental progressive metal music and have also been experimenting with Latin inspirations on their boundary rustling third record The Joy of Motion. Their relationship with groove does not just push the envelope, it sounds completely imported from the future. These godly rhythms will melt you, they will melt you like a grilled cheese, like a grilled cheese in the sun.
Incubus
The first time I ever heard Incubus I was reading through my notes. Among the random jumbled assortment of things I had once deemed important I saw a singular note with nought but the word Incubus written on the top line. I still have no memory of why I ever wrote it down. Reading that note made me happy. I’m sure it will make you happy if you see them at Soundwave. Are you in?
Antemasque
Antemasque is a unique project. It will be interesting to see how they perform live. Flea put down a great amount of bass work on their debut and I’m sure their touring bassist will be able to keep up without a doubt. David Elitch is a monster on the drums too and anything Cedric does in general is pure gold. For the most part having a boogie to In the Lurch will probably on the main stage will have everyone losing their minds.
Local Support!
Whichever city you attend Soundwave in be sure to take the time to see your state’s local support band. This band is the winner of The Triple J unearthed competition to be a part of the festival and likely worked super hard to be where they are. It is also likely that as they are opening the festival that there won’t be much for them to clash with. It’s important to give these newcomers a crowd!
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