Sepsis - The Divide 7" (2022)

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Here's an illusive slab of frenetic crust punk/hardcore from the murky depths of Australia few here will be privy to but likely interested in! Drenched in reverb and grime. every corner of music is ransacked by overblown tone and bass, giving little time for reflection beyond total destruction—It sounds and feels like the halcyon days of newly-shaped hardcore, when early thrash was in its conception, but with ample energy taken from the UK crust scene of yore and what the band claims as a strong influence from the Swedish hardcore scene.

Taken from their bandcamp page: "Sepsis! A charged 4-piece crust bombardment from Naarm, Australia. Following hot off the heels from their sold out demo, they offer up 4 tracks thats are inspired by early UK crust with a strong Swedish hc backbone. For fans of Absolut Country of Sweden/ Scandinavian Jawbreaker era Anti Cimex, Hellbastard and Sacrilege. Maximum Devastation! Limited to 300 hand number copies."

Sepsis - The Divide (Bandcamp)

Nocturnal Graves - An Outlaw's Stand (2022)

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Following up a Melbourne release with another Melbourne release albeit with significantly different soundscapes and ethos—but all the same, I maintain that Australia has one of the most banging music scenes going on at the moment.

Nocturnal Graves is just pure unfettered worship for all things thrash and black metal and all the muck and mire in-between this ilk. We've got a one track (very early) teaser to go off of for the upcoming album, An Outlaw's Stand, and it's what you'd probably expect out of these guys; bestial energy pulsating through a barrage of blackened thrash with emphasis on a greased-up tempo and ruining your day.

Nocturnal Graves - An Outlaw's Stand (bandcamp)

Michael Beach - Dream Violence (2021)

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Australia is an absolute uncontested hotbed in the realm of toothy rock and roll and Michael Beach is just yet another fish in the pond of energetic and woollen post-punk from Melbourne. Angular guitars pervade through a post-punk sentimentality that isn't at all afraid to traverse the sonic highways of a multitude of different genres and ideas, experimenting between tracks that harken to The Velvet Underground, Joy Division, Solid Space, Nick Cave and even a track in 'You Know Life Is Cheap' that sounds like something Timber Timbre would write with its wobbly bayou dirge. 

Michael Beach - Dream Violence (bandcamp)

Divide & Dissolve - TFW (2020)

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Divide & Dissolve are a two-piece – Very loud and supremely glacial doom and drone encompassed of Takiaya Reed and Sylvie Nehill of Melbourne, Australia, who met and united under the bond that they are both of indigenous background and began to create music, pounding and hypnotic, as a means to lay down the bedrock of their creative outlet, beliefs and messages. All of this is accomplished through a dense wall of sound that utilizes Takiaya guitar and saxophone drone over top the churn of Sylvie's drums, it's powerful and transporting and I'm eager to hear more than just this one song off of TFW.

I don't know where it's going, but I'm all in…

TFW (bandcamp)

Contaminated / Kutabare Split (2019)

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I've been listening to Contaminated's debut album Final Man more than anything else in the last couple months, and though its release was in 2017 I can't find any reason that I missed it when it came out. I'm remiss. Everything within the wall of cavernous death metal is right where I want it, layers of begrimed tones stacked over a guttural churn that is often a troglodytic bellow cutting through super crunchy guitar tones, bloated and fetid while the drumming ranges from plodding dirges to a mirky standard death metal grooves with cymbals that somehow manage to sound really good cutting through the blanket of mire conjured on this begrimed beast from down under. Up there with my favourite death metal albums right now.

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Contaminated have also released a one-song split with Kutabare this year worth mentioning, even though it's only mere minutes both songs are worth a listen as they both managed to pack unequivocal ferocity into each track, respectively. I'm in.

Contaminated - Final Man (bandcamp)

Contaminated / Kutabare - Split (bandcamp)

The Broderick - Free To Rot, Free Of Sin (2012)

Let's cut through the shit, you're not going to like this album if you don't like any form of hardcore. Not the, youth of today, x'ed up fists and sing-a-longs type hardcore, OR the crossed arms stance tough guy hardcore, BUT the kind of hardcore that doesn't fear coalescing and mingling with other genres.

Free To Rot, Free Of Sin adventures between a sludgy landscape ensconced in a furiously angry post-hardcore niche, hard hitting and dynamic! Here's an album that is deserving of more praise than it so far has received, it hasn't been under the scalpel so to speak, but I cut this fucker up, and all I could find is some emotionally charged fast and furious jams that are competent enough to be melodic and crushing in one fell swoop. 

The Broderick - Free To Rot, Free Of Sin (Zippyshare)

Helta Skelta - S/T (2012)

A scum-punk/crust release from Helta Skelta of Australia, filled with a back-alley production soaked in vomit, urine and blood. Shit, imagine GG Allin's carpet in music form. Featuring dudes in the hardcore/power-grind band Extortion, one might expect a flurry of furious blasts under a barrage of anger, but really it takes the form of a different beast. Imagine a rabid possum, scouring day and night, rummaging through garbage and grime, engaging in raucous sexual acts with its nocturnal counterparts… And then bam, fucking hit by a car, guts everywhere strewn across the pavement in a morbid display. That's my visual representation for Helta Skelta's Self Titled debut. Bite at it you scum!

Elysian Blaze - Blood Geometry (2012)

I've been a fan of Elysian Blaze ever since I bought Levitating The Carnal back in 2009 (it came out in 2006), I bought it on a whim thinking it was going to be a colossal heap of black metal from the land down under. Turns out I was right…

Elysian Blaze is a one man band from Australia that set out to display a hollow churning void of black metal with halting funeral doom pace and a lightly ambient overtone. It stands firmly between a minimalist approach with a very dreary vibe, its bleak energy belongs echoing in empty halls. It seems that all that is good is meant to be purged from the listener, an easy listen it is not. If you hearken its entirety, thy blackness is strong.

2012 sees Blood Geometry on a lot of year end list I presume. I almost forgot to mention, it's in two parts, spanning for over 2 hours… Of emotionally draining black metal. Good luck.

Blood Geometry (part I)
Blood Geometry (part II)