ThornhillThornhill had a gargantuan 2025, they released their best work yet in the form of the album BODIES, they supported one of the biggest bands in the world, Sleep Token, they won an ARIA, they performed at some of the biggest festivals and they did a European headline tour.
Just when they thought the busiest year of their life was over, the world threw them one more curveball.
In December, they stepped in to replace Alpha Wolf at Good Things Festival with only three hours’ notice. Alpha Wolf were a last minute replacement for Knocked Loose who were no longer able to perform.
A member of the Alpha Wolf team had a medical emergency on the morning of the festival. Now the replacement act needed a replacement.
Despite Thornhill vocalist Jacob Charlton having just come back from his first leg day at the gym in a long time – after thinking he had the weekend off – they were able to pull off a near impossible task.
“I went hard at legs,” Charlton explains to The Music from his home studio as he takes a break from the recording session he’s doing at his computer.
“I'm like, stumbling up to get to my apartment and I get a call and [Ben Maida] our drummer, he's teching for Dayseeker at Good Things, he’s already there. Our guitarist [Ethan McCann] was taking his little sister to her first festival, so he was there. Then we get a call and he's like, ‘Hey, Alpha Wolf literally just pulled out. I just heard. They're asking if we can make this happen?’
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“I was like ‘No, like it's twelve o’clock there's no chance we can make it happen. Who's gonna drum?’ Luckily our front of house was already there because he was gonna mix Alpha Wolf… I've showered, I got out and got another call and Maida’s like ‘We're doing it. Pack your bag, a van is going to pick you up in 10 minutes. You're not gonna be home till Monday. Let's go!’ And we were like ‘Oh my god, okay.’”
Even as things began to line up, they still needed some other things to align to as to ensure things will get themselves over the line.
“Ethan had to Uber back home to get his guitar with his sister and then Uber back,” Charlton continues. “Maida is scrambling to find us a kit. We call Sammy [Ocean Grove drummer and BODIES producer] and we’re like, ‘Hey, can you play?’ and he's like, ‘I don't know the new song. I don't know this song. I don't know that, I can only play this.’ We were like, ‘Oh my god, we're scrambling.’
“Half an hour, we finally arrive, we set up and we just walk on stage. We have no idea what the setlist is, no idea what's happening. I was warming up in the van, we didn't know what was happening. If it wasn't for how awesome our crew and our friends were, there's no chance it would have happened… I can't believe we pulled it off.
“Machine Head watched us and we came off stage and they say, ‘Man, that's real rockstar shit,’” Charlton quotes in a southern accent. “‘I ain’t seen a band ever do that’ and to hear that from Machine Head. Type shit. I'll take that.”
In August 2025, Thornhill unexpectedly stepped away from an already announced tour supporting Landmvrks. A few days later it was revealed they were going to support one of the biggest bands in the world, Sleep Token on their sold out Even In Arcadia arena tour of the United States.
Despite hearing horror stories from friends about being in these supporting slots for giant tours like this, Charlton says the Sleep Token team couldn’t have been more supportive.
“They've got like 100 crew, and they're all lovely, and they're caring,” he explains. “The band is lovely and they care about your performance being good. They put a lot of things into perspective. It's the way that they kind of handle it is like, your allotted time on stage is important, and it's yours. It's not ours. Their whole thing is if we can't sell out these venues as a solo, we shouldn't be playing them.
“So they announce their tour, sell it out, and then give a band that they like an opportunity to have that stage and to do their thing and to help in any way. They weren't like, You can't use our production. You can't do this, you can't do that.’ All the crew was like, ‘Let’s push back doors, Thornhill need to soundcheck, we need to put up their flag for them.’
“We had their lighting guy busk all our lights every day and he was a legend – shout out Richard,” he adds. “They're all so awesome and it was like a real blessing to be with that many good people. I think it's definitely a thought process we're going to carry on to our touring the bigger that we get.”
Sleep Token are on a generational run, there hasn’t been a band that has conquered – and divided – the alternative music scene so suddenly in decades. Despite their rise to fame, Sleep Token still have time to discover their new favourite band from Australia and personally pick them to be the support act.
“It’s all the Vessel [Sleep Token vocalist], he was a Heroine [Thornhill’s 2022 album] fan. Vessel’s the real one,” Charlton beams.
“We pretty much just got an email just being like, ‘He's wanting you on this tour. You better make this happen.’ I think for us it was a bit hard because we were already on another tour and we felt really bad and we had a lot of distress about how we're gonna handle that because it's, you know, it's bad business, it's bad sportsmanship.
“We don't want to be known for doing that and putting another band at jeopardy for that, I know how hard that would be to try and find another support,” he continues. “It was rough.
“Once we kind of handled that situation I think we were like, ‘Oh, this is really cool. I wonder if we'll actually get a chance to meet [Sleep Token]?’ It just turns out they want to hang. They're actually really lovely, and it was cool to kind of get gritty with how they do things and why they chose us and where they're coming from with their music.
“I think we had a lot of similarities in how we perceive the job that we do and it's really cool when you find like-minded people.”
Despite feeling awful about having to pull-out of the Landmvrks tour. Charlton knew it would be a stupid decision not to accept this once in a lifetime opportunity.
“We were like, ‘We're so sorry, but we're gonna have to. Like, it would be stupid for us to not do it,’” he explains. “I feel like every band would make that choice. You know, if they were in that position if any other band was in that position it's like, what, are you gonna say no?
“I guess it's a moral thing. I guess you can weigh it up however you want to, but I think too many people were like ‘this is actually probably a real life change, so you should do it.’ Luckily, we did because their audience really took us with open arms, which we've heard is not the norm.”
This month, Thornhill will be touring Australia nationally with four out of five shows already sold out.
It’s a chance to finally celebrate their 2025 album BODIES, the album many recognise as one of the albums of the year and Thornhill’s most exciting work to date. Joining them is a Thornhill curated line-up featuring rising star, Japan’s chaotic metalcore favourites, Paledusk, and Australian metalcore outfit Heavensgate.
America’s Amira Elfeky was originally on the line-up, but recently had to withdraw due to “unforeseen circumstances.” Instead, Ocean Grove will be joining them instead.
“It was actually hard to come up with that line-up because I think we're just at that point where we're big for smaller bands, but we’re small for bigger bands,” Charlton explains. “It's hard to fit people under us that we want to because we're like, ‘Oh all these bands that we like are really sick but there's no way they'd want to play under us’, which is fair, it's a business after all…
“Paledusk are some old homies of ours and they're one of the most incredible live bands of all time,” he adds. “Giving Heavensgate [the spot], I remember us getting the offer at the Forum with Parkway Drive when we were little babies and I remember wanting to shit my pants before that.
“I think it's really important to save that opening spot for the younger newer Australian bands to give them that stage to go and rip it because they deserve it.”
Thornhill unexpectedly released new single Mercia in September, 2025. This was only a few months after BODIES was released. Apart from releasing their special remix album BODIES X in November, Thornhill haven’t given any indication when to expect new music.
“We're back to writing,” Charlton offers. “I'm literally looking at my session right now of a song I'm working on but we didn't really have anything left over. We pretty much expended everything that we had into BODIES. We're not the kind of band to have demos that don't really make it [on the record].
“We barely pass over the line of 11 tracks for an album. Mercia was something that we just wanted a bigger, larger than life song that would work in an arena but could also close BODIES because we felt like we didn't close it the way that we wanted to with For Now. You know, everything in hindsight, once you do it.
“Everything is fresh now,” he adds. “I think if one thing we've learnt, our writing style has changed, our intention I think has changed a bit in the way Ethan and I lean on each other for music creation is different than we've ever had it. I never used to write instrumental stuff. I was mainly there to just be a yes, no man and ideas man for him. I just do vocals.
“But now Mercia and some of the BODIES tracks I was writing some of the instrumental stuff and he was writing some ideas for the vocals. So we've kind of tried to become a bit more fluid together with the way that we write. So kind of keen to try that out for another record.
Given how quickly Mercia came out it does make fans think new music could be on the horizon, however, Charlton doesn’t give anything away.
“I have no idea, maybe this year,” he muses. “If we’ve got enough time, we are touring pretty full on. I'd like to release something this year, so hopefully this year.”
Destroy All Lines, Future History Management & triple j Presents
THORNHILL
BODIES 2026 AUSTRALIAN HEADLINE TOUR
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS OCEAN GROVE, PALEDUSK (JPN) + HEAVENSGATE
SATURDAY 21 FEBRUARY - THE TIVOLI, BRISBANE (LIC AA)
SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY - ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY (LIC AA)
TUESDAY 24 FEBRUARY - ASTOR THEATRE, PERTH (LIC AA)
THURSDAY 26 FEBRUARY - THE GOV, ADELAIDE (LIC AA)
FRIDAY 27 FEBRUARY - FORUM THEATRE, MELBOURNE (18+)
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
