OPINION: Australian Heavy Music Is Taking Over The World. If You Ever Dismissed The Genre, It's Time To Pay Attention
EDM isn’t the only Australian export making international tastemakers take note: it's time to pay attention to Australian heavy music.
Parkway Drive at Knotfest Brisbane (Credit: Jordan Munns)
EDM isn’t the only Australian export making international tastemakers take note. There’s another genre that’s far less mainstream but perhaps just as popular that we should all be paying attention to.
Australian heavy bands haven’t just taken over the charts and venues in their home country; they’re also making huge waves overseas.
In October 2026, the first-ever metal cruise to touch down on Australian shores will take place with an incredible all-Australian line-up. Hellbound has locked in an outstanding line-up if you already listen to a lot of metalcore, and it offers something even more impressive after taking a chance and not including any international acts on the bill.
After all, fans of Australian metal bands from the US, Europe and beyond flood our bands’ comments on social media, begging them to play in their cities. It’s a type of music that’s gotten so popular that people can’t help commenting on the rise of Australian heavy music, asking: “What’s in the water in Australia?”
Lochlan Watt, radio announcer, journalist, promoter at Destroy All Lines, and vocalist of the Melbourne metal act R U N, says only the best and only those who want it badly enough will make it overseas.
“Due to our geographical isolation, the cost of entry into the international market is so much steeper for Australian bands that it just means that only the best of the best and those who want it so badly they are prepared to make the required sacrifices actually make it overseas regularly enough to gain prominence,” Watt shares.
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“In terms of domestic success, I don't think there is anything special about Australian bands so much as it the passion of heavy music fans in general that allows heavy acts to maintain careers while so many other styles that aren't doing so well on the live front have more casual fan bases that are less likely to build entire communities and livelihoods around it.”
Award-winning journalist, presenter, publicist and lifelong metal fan Tiana Speter—who owns and runs The Soundcheck—says the scene is having a “cat’s outta the bag prolific moment.” But what’s truly exciting is seeing how this growth has been ongoing and gone from strength to strength.
“Australian heavy bands are not only releasing insanely good music; they’re also the ones relentlessly adding in regional tours to the mix, they’re touring with huge titans of the scene at home and internationally, our heavy festivals here in Oz are thriving against all the odds, and the demand for these bands across the world and at home is endless,” she says.
“I think what we’re ultimately seeing is that heavy music has breached and/or at least opened the door wider into the mainstream in terms of appeal. You don’t have to physically look a certain way or become some stereotype to find your place with this type of music anymore.”
Noting the achievements of women in Australian heavy music, Speter adds, “We have badass women leading the charge with acts like RedHook, Stand Atlantic, Amyl And The Sniffers, Make Them Suffer, and Yours Truly.
“Each band are crazy talented, but when we dive a little bit deeper, RedHook are selling out UK shows currently, Stand Atlantic’s most recent album hit #3 on the ARIA Australian Albums Charts, Yours Truly got tapped to open for Thirty Seconds To Mars last year, and Make Them Suffer just took out the Most Performed Hard Rock/Heavy Metal crown at the 2025 APRA Music Awards. And let’s just say we all know the ballistic success story that [APRA Song of the Year winners] Amyl And The Sniffers have in their wake!”
Speter also points to the “breakaway success” of Parkway Drive and SPEED and how their music has helped put Australian heavy music on the radar of everyone from Travis Barker to the people she speaks to every day.
“We’ve got our homegrown icons being gushed over on the world stage while redefining what it means to be a modern heavy band,” she says. “We have a group from Byron Bay not just performing at some of the biggest festivals in the world but headlining them.
“These are all normal kids who started out as underground heroes and have gone on to blaze so many trails for all bands in terms of success, all while also getting our country on the other side of the world on the map. The drummer from blink-182 and a Kardashian wearing an Aussie band shirt may not seem super ‘metal,’ but seeing pop culture worlds collide like for us Down Under is wild. And on a personal level, I will never grow tired of hearing international musicians lose their shit (positively) when they’re talking about Aussie heavy bands in my day job.”
Trying to find out “why” the international community has latched onto Australian heavy music has no one answer. However, Speter outlines the talent, experimentation, and community that’s already been built at home before bands head overseas.
“As to the ‘why’ of all of this? Obviously, there’s a hell of a lot of talent in Australia, and I also think audiences in general are finally starting to view heavy music as the nuanced umbrella that it is,” she notes. “Heavy music can have pop or EDM elements just as much as it can have bleghs and breakdowns. There’s a heavy song for every mood, occasion and/or activity, and Australian artists are unafraid to defy genre confines in the pursuit of originality and authenticity.
“Love hip hop? Alpha Wolf teamed up with Ice T. Heavy metal boy band vibes more your thing? Meet Banks Arcade. Want some swoon with your alt-rock? Enter Thornhill. And all of this is not even beginning to scratch the surface of every metalcore, punk, hardcore, heavy metal, hard rock, deathcore (and so on) band working their asses off around the country.
“And alongside all of that, I also believe that a large part of the success is that our heavy community across Australia is so healthy. We don’t care if heavy music is in vogue or the flavour of the month. We’ll still keep going to gigs and hurling ourselves in mosh pits, or vibing with the bands and the crowds in whatever room or venue will have us. Our bands back each other’s successes.”
She concludes, “We know what it’s like to face geographical challenges in our own country, so tackling international ones isn’t anything we can’t handle. And we sure as hell know what it’s like to be the underdog. It’s awesome when an Aussie band takes flight and starts getting traction because when one rises, the whole scene rises as well to varying degrees. But heavy music has no expiry date or expectations, and that’s an irresistible cocktail that our Australian bands have perfected.”
At the time of publication, Byron Bay metal titans and the headliners of the inaugural Hellbound, Parkway Drive, have amassed over 1.2 billion streams on Spotify alone—an incredible feat for a band that began as a crushing metalcore outfit that’s since developed into a heavy metal juggernaut.
Their music is inaccessible to the non-metalhead – Winston McCall’s vocals, to those who aren’t into metal, are abrasive; maybe even too loud. He doesn’t sing (often); he screams. The guitars, drums, and bass, often duel in aggressive breakdowns. They make music about loss, mortality, and even touch on climate change—not exactly shiny, happy music. And yet, Parkway Drive have become one of Australia’s most successful heavy bands.
While it’s difficult to find out how many streams they’ve gathered internationally, it’s fair to say that no matter where the numbers are coming from, they’re extremely impressive.
Their most popular song on Spotify, Prey, has gathered over 89 million streams. Their tenth most popular song on Spotify, Wishing Wells, has over 26 million streams. Beyond the streaming numbers, one only needs to take a look at the band’s social media profiles to see some of the incredible opportunities that have come their way, from Australia to abroad.
In June and July, Parkway Drive will co-headline a massive run of shows in the US with American bands Beartooth, I Prevail, and Killswitch Engage. Fellow Aussies The Amity Affliction and Alpha Wolf also feature on the line-up. It begs the question: how have Australian bands found this level of international domination? What is it about bands from Byron Bay and Burnie, Tasmania, that have captured the love of punters across the globe?
Before we get to the newer bands making waves overseas, it’s important to highlight Parkway Drive’s ascent through the 2000s metalcore scene, playing raucous shows in youth centres and tiny venues at home and internationally, chugging away with support slots and 20-minute sets to make their name known. Seeing the band wearing surf clothes and pairs of thongs was just normal – they looked like a group of guys you’d see and hang out with anywhere in Byron Bay. Their music did the real talking.
With 2015’s Ire, the band took a major risk and abandoned the brutal breakdowns of their past music, with McCall embracing different vocal styles and the band experimenting with the dramatic.
Their 2018 album, Reverence, was a fully realised vision of what we heard on Ire, and took the band to the highest height of European metal festivals: headlining Wacken Open Air in 2019. With 2022’s Darker Still, Parkway Drive reckoned with mental health and entrenched ideas of masculinity, while adding elements of grunge and classic rock to their signature sound.
Not only have they proved that a heavy metal band from Australia can be successful, but they’ve nurtured the bands that have come after them, taken significant risks when they didn’t have forefathers to look to, and showed that you can be metal and talk about your mental health. They always push forward, never allowing themselves to become a nostalgia band.
This June, Parkway Drive will perform a sold-out, one-off black-tie event at the Sydney Opera House. The resulting show will make up their forthcoming feature film and live album, HOME. From September to November, they’ll headline a tour of Europe and be joined by fellow Aussies The Amity Affliction and Thy Art Is Murder.
If you ask me, Parkway Drive have provided the ultimate blueprint for heavy acts from Australia. They proved that bands could find success without sacrificing the heavy nature of their music, but if they wanted to change it up, there’s a devoted fan base that’s along for the ride.
One of the main stories here is how Parkway Drive aren’t only successful, but they opened the door (and kept it open) for the next generation of heavy bands, showing the way on how to export Australian music.
The bands that I’ve already mentioned – Parkway, The Amity Affliction, and Thy Art Is Murder – aren’t the only ones doing well overseas. Younger bands with smaller profiles are now headlining their own tours at home and overseas. And the shows are selling out.
Since forming just five years after Parkway Drive in 2008, Perth’s Make Them Suffer has experienced numerous line-up changes, but they haven’t sacrificed the quality of their music.
Their latest album, last year’s self-titled album, came after a long four-year wait and saw them sign to Sharptone and Greyscale, internationally and at home, respectively. Make Them Suffer have over 355 million streams to their name on Spotify.
The band said of the album, “The decision to self-title our latest record was a significant one. It stands as an authentic representation of the band’s sound. We loved our band name in the early years; however, through all these years of growth, we believe the songs on this album are the best representation of ‘Make Them Suffer’ as a name and, more importantly, as our vision for the band. The album represents years of growth, evolution of sound, and is a ‘full circle’ representation of that vision.”
That growth hasn’t just been in a musical sense. The band are currently headlining a tour of Europe, and as of the most recent tour poster shared on their Instagram last week, ten shows have sold out, six are on their final tickets/selling fast, and there’s been a venue upgrade. Not bad for a band promoting their first album in four years and their first with a new co-vocalist and keyboardist, right?
Make Them Suffer embarked on their first “legit” tour of the US in February and March, bringing Aussie outfit Windwaker along for the ride. They sold out 23 shows on the lengthy run.
The APRA Awards are catching on with just how thrilling the local heavy scene is, too, actively showcasing metalcore and hardcore bands including Make Them Suffer, Windwaker, SPEED, Northlane, and Polaris.
With their third album, Fatalism, Polaris hit the top spot on the ARIA Albums Chart upon its release, marking the first time they’d ever experienced the achievement.
This June marks an absolutely huge month for the Sydney outfit. Set to perform at pretty much every European festival known to man, including Rock Im Park/Rock Am Ring, Graspop Metal Meeting, Download Festival, Novarock Festival, and Impericon Festival, to name a few, it’s safe to say “Polaris summer” is upon Europe.
Following their performances at this year’s Knotfest in Australia, Polaris will open for headliners Slipknot and co-headliners A Day To Remember in some European cities. Last year, they headlined a two-month tour across the US with all American support acts.
With their blend of metalcore and progressive and ambient soundscapes, electronics, melodic hooks and personal lyrics, Polaris are recognised and loved for their arena-ready tunes that are highly relatable – always a bonus for music fans as devoted as metalheads.
Since their formation in 2017, Sydney’s RedHook have made a name for themselves with their diverse brand of heavy music that jumps from screaming breakdowns to sugary sweet pop choruses to sax solos and back again. Their first album, Postcard From A Living Hell, arrived in April 2023 and their second album, Mutation, was released last November.
With Mutation, the self-described “screaming rap rock electro pop mutants” cracked the top 20 of the ARIA Albums Chart while topping the ARIA Australian Albums Chart – not bad for such a young group!
The band just wrapped a European headline tour, amassing sold-out shows in cities including London, Bristol, Southampton, Nottingham, and Cologne. In March and April, they tore up stages with fellow Aussies Stand Atlantic on an epic regional Australian tour.
Speaking of regional tours, Make Them Suffer and Alpha Wolf are headlining their own regional Australian tours this year.
Meanwhile, Melbourne metal group Thornhill receive comparisons to Deftones for bringing sexy back to heavy music – a comparison that’s well-earned.
With this year’s BODIES, released ten years into their career, Thornhill debuted at #4 on the ARIA Albums Chart with their most cohesive, pummelling body of work to date; a bold album that’s taking them on a major US headlining tour joined by Aussie nu-metal outfit Ocean Grove and rockers Banks Arcade. Ten shows have sold out, and seven shows are on their final tickets.
To celebrate the release of BODIES, Thornhill played three sold-out launch shows on the East Coast of Australia, and the album was named the Feature Album on triple j upon its release—Void Of Vision’s Jack Bergin plugging Australian heavy music even after his band heads towards disbandment.
With six albums under their belts, Australian heavy metal band Northlane are three-time ARIA Award winners (for Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album), and on their latest EP, 2024’s Mirror’s Edge, locked in collaborations with Winston McCall and Karnivool’s Ian Kenny.
This year, Northlane will tour across Australia, Europe and the UK, and the US, playing enormous festivals along the way. A new album is in the works, but while the band tours plenty and still records music, guitarist Josh Smith nurtures upcoming acts.
Even for Smith, the success of Northlane is beyond all expectations.
“When we started Northlane over a decade ago, we never imagined we’d be playing shows across the UK, Europe, and the US,” he admits. “We were just trying to make music that meant something to us — heavy, emotional, and honest. The fact that people so far from home have connected with it still blows our minds.”
He believes that part of what’s made Northlane connect so deeply with audiences is their risk-taking, as well as being an Australian group that’s found their feet abroad. They have “underdog energy,” but it’s essential to point out that by the time many bands get to tour overseas, they’ve become a polished outfit after “grinding for years.”
Smith tells The Music, “We’ve always tried to push ourselves creatively, and I think that’s part of what’s resonated with people overseas. Every time we’ve taken a risk — whether it was experimenting with electronic elements, taking new progressive directions, or stripping everything back — the international response has often surprised us. People appreciate that we’re not trying to fit into a mould. They just want something real.
“There’s also something special about being an Australian band abroad. Maybe it’s the outsider perspective or the underdog energy we bring. We’ve noticed that crowds in places like Germany, the UK, and even the States are often curious and open to what we’re doing — they don’t just want a carbon copy of what they already know. That’s given us the freedom to be ourselves, and we’re incredibly grateful for that.
“One thing we’ve noticed is that when Australian bands finally make it overseas, people often assume we’ve just exploded out of nowhere — but the reality is, most of us have been grinding for years before we ever get the chance to tour internationally. It’s so expensive and logistically tough to get off this island, we’re forced to be patient.
“You spend years honing your craft and figuring out who you are as a band before you ever step foot in Europe or the US. By the time we get there, we’re not a new band — we’re a seasoned one. That can make Aussie acts seem more polished or established than some local acts just starting out, even if we’re technically playing our first international shows.”
In 2019, Smith teamed up with Destroy All Lines’ Chris O’Brien to launch Open Door Management. Australian bands on the roster include Northlane, Make Them Suffer, Reliqa, Void Of Vision, Windwaker, and Belle Haven.
While Void Of Vision recently embarked on their final tour of Australia – and one last show at the Forum in Melbourne this July – they went out with a bang, releasing a ten-track album of perfect tracks, What I’ll Leave Behind.
Having supported Parkway Drive and The Ghost Inside on recent tours, performed at the inaugural Knotfest Australia, a band that formed as teenagers soared to heights beyond their wildest imaginations.
I suppose that’s a developing theme here: no one could have expected the Australian metal takeover, at home or abroad. Who saw it coming? Since when has there been this much space for heavy acts from the other side of the globe? How do we keep the momentum going?
The truth is, none of this would be possible without support.
Without the old-school, non-stop grinding, growing in musicianship and performance skills.
Without the devoted fans that show up to dive bars well before these bands played 170 Russell or John Cain Arena.
Without management, publicists, and record labels that know how to promote heavy acts.
Without journalists and video creators and podcasters.
Without blogs and connecting with fans on social media.
Without photographers and videographers that capture the energy of a metal show.
Without tastemakers and even editorial playlists on DSPs that frequently spotlight Australian heavy music.
It’s all interconnected to create the music scene that’s thriving today, not hiding in the shadows or the underground, but moving thousands of tickets at festivals and concerts.
Of course, there are so many bands I could mention, but as a starting point, entire Hellbound line-up is killer.
Revisit The Butterfly Effect, check out In Hearts Wake’s brilliant new album Incarnation; go mosh to Future Static and To The Grave. And, echoing Charli XCX handing the mantle to acts such as Turnstile and Lorde releasing new albums this year, please make 2025 the year of The Beautiful Monument summer.
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