A Beginner’s Guide To Australian Metal In Eight Great Tracks
Ever wanted to dip your toe in Aussie metal? Here's how.
Australian metal doesn’t always get spoken about with the reverence that it deserves.
After all, the titans of the genre tend to be American or English. There’s no band from Down Under with the cultural heft of Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, or Mastodon. And that’s unfair. Not because of some weird cultural patriotism, but because we’ve constantly produced some of the most under-heralded and yet innovative acts of the last few decades.
Sure, in the early years of the scene, acts would self-consciously stylize themselves after the icons making waves overseas. The first wave of Australian metal heavyhitters owed their entire aesthetic and sound to that first Black Sabbath album. But as the ’80s progressed, Australians began twisting sub-genres down their little fingers, mixing up the speed of grindcore with the titanic riffs of Black metal.
And then there were the acts who refused to fit into any easy category, pioneers like Canberra’s Armoured Angel and Sydney’s Frozen Doberman. Playing to frequently small but committed crowds, they blended tones and inspirations at lightning speed.
Along the way, some of those bands fell into the mainstream. AC/DC, a band that fused rock riffs with metal-adjacent intensity, became one of the biggest acts in our history. In the two thousands, our pop-metal trendsetters attracted the attention of the American general public, I Killed The Prom Queen spawning hit after hit.
Yet to truly understand Australian metal, you have to go subversive; to look at the band that made a cultural act, not a financial one, and trace the slow evolution of our strange little scene. To that end, here’s a list of the eight best Australian metal songs around, mini-masterpieces that practically demand your attention and your ears.
#1. Mortal Sin — ‘Voyage of the Disturbed’
In the mid-’80s, the Australian thrash metal scene was about two bands wide — Mortal Sin and Slaughter Lord. Both acts combined the sped-up solos of Anthrax with the crushing intensity of Black Sabbath. But Mortal Sin brought more of a sense of fun to the proceedings, embracing the cheese and letting things frequently slip into the realm of pure nonsense.
Their debut, Mayhemic Destruction, amassed them a small but fervent following, but it wasn’t until 1990’s Every Dog Has Its Day that they kicked into overdrive. By 2012, they would be broken up, but their almost four decades as purveyors of black slabs of metal makes them one of the most important groups in the canon.
#2. Disembowelment — ‘A Burial at Ornans’
Australian underground metal act Disembowlment were the definition of a band cut down before their time. They released only two records, a studio album and an EP, and went their separate ways before they had even played one gig together.
But they were so innovative — so forward-thinking in the way they combined grindcore and death metal — that their impact has been felt not just on the local scene, but around the world. There’s no cult act quite as, uh, cult-y as Disembowelment. Long may their reputation live.
#3. Portal — ‘Heirships’
The identity of the members of Portal, an extreme Australian metal band known for the Lovecraftian lyrics and creeping sense of doom, are a total mystery — the vocalist since 1994 is a shadowy figure known only as The Curator.
If their music was less impressive, that might seem overly grand. But Portal make music that feels like it has come loping over from some parallel dimension. Their second record, Outre, might be the most punishing work of art ever released in this country, and they’ve only gotten more portentous and eerie since then.
#4. Bestial Warlust — ‘Bestial Warlust’
If the name Bestial Warlust sounds uncompromising to you, then brace for yourself for the Australian black metal group’s original moniker — Corpse Molestation. Releasing a spate of demos under that title, the group eventually incorporated black metal into their sound, twisting to become stranger, doomier, and more immense.
They stayed together for just a few years, vocalist “Joe Skullfucker” holding them in place, before they eventually exploded under their own blackened weight. But their songs feel only more forward-thinking now, swapping from frenetic breakdowns to miles-wide guitar solos.
#5. Taramis — ‘Path To Aquilonia’
Of all the metal sub-genres, progressive metal might be the most underrepresented in Australia. Only Taramis, who found fame after supporting Brazillian icons Sepultura, played around with the long and complex time signatures made famous by Tool.
Not to suggest that Taramis were merely copycats. Their own discography is full of inspired left turns, most notably on the six-minute long mini epic ‘Path to Aquilonia’, which carves out a world entirely of its own.
#6. Cancelled Earth — ‘Mechanical Scarring’
Cancelled Earth, one of the few bands on this list that are still writing and performing, release songs that sound like they’ve been dragged down ten miles of bad road.
‘Mechanical Scarring’, their most recent masterpiece, is a churning, ceaseless horror of a track, drawing on grindcore, death metal, and everything inbetween. Every day, we should be praying at Cancelled Earth’s blackened altar.
#7. Gospel of the Horns — ‘Powers of Darkness’
Of all the Black Sabbath-imitators that Australia has ever spawned, perhaps none are as strange or as bloodied as Gospel of the Horns. Stridently anti-religion in their messaging, and obsessed with metal trademarks like genocide, pain, and murder, the band hit their peak with recent record Realm of the Damned. The act called it quits only recently, but their acid-soaked choruses still inspire new waves of imitators.
8. Abominator — ‘The Brimstone Nucleus’
Abominator have had a strange and lopsided history, marked by sudden band departures and wild changes in their sound. But despite their tendency to stop and start, they have still produced one of the most singular careers in the country, doing whatever they want and always on their own terms.
Their album Evil Proclaimed, released a few short years ago and deep into their career, is one of the best things they’ve ever dropped. Here’s to a few decades more.
Joseph Earp is a staff writer at Junkee. He tweets @JosephOEarp.