HellionsSydney’s theatrical hardcore champions, Hellions have returned to full strength with their core line-up reunited.
This May, they're set to perform their seminal, fan-favourite album Opera Oblivia in full across Australia to celebrate its ten-year anniversary. This new era sees original vocalist and guitarist, Matt Gravolin returning after announcing his departure from the band in 2019.
In this time away from the band Gravolin explored new musical directions in his experimental folk rock project, Agnes Manners.
The remaining members of Hellions, Dre Faivre (vocalist), Anthony Caruso (drummer), and Josh Campiao (guitar) continued as a three-piece with stop-start momentum as their next chapter battled against COVID event cancellations. Unfortunately, it never gained the same momentum as before.
As the ten-year anniversary of Opera Oblivia crept closer, Gravolin was repeatedly contacted by fans asking whether this was the moment Hellions would reunite for a tour. It ultimately led to him reaching out to the rest of the band.
“After a little while, I lowered my resistance to it,” Gravolin explains over Zoom from his home in Melbourne. “The longer the time passes since you've last seen somebody, or addressed an awkward situation… it gets harder to address.
Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter
“One day, I just had a close friend paint it really nicely for me: ‘Think about the venues that you’d play and think about how nice it would be.’ I contacted the guys, admittedly with some nerves, inquiring if they'd want to do it.
“That was the first domino,” he adds. “After that, everybody was on board and we're all equally interested, which was such a lovely thing.”
To dust off the cobwebs, Hellions performed two-intimate headline shows in Sydney and Brisbane at the end of 2025. It was the first time they had performed together live as a four-piece since 2019.
“It was very nerve-wracking, more so than we'd anticipated, particularly getting on stage for Brisbane show one,” Gravolin recalls. “Even soundcheck and getting ready for it, there weren't any significant nerves present, you know?
“It was just muscle memory, everything came back really easily for everybody and it was kind of just finessing the little parts.
“But then, like 15-minutes away from performing at the Brisbane date, I think I can speak for everybody when I say we were all unexpectedly quite nervous. The payoff was massive, to see everybody; it didn't feel like a ‘comeback’ show, it felt like reconnection rather than trying to relight something that's extinguished.”
This reconnection isn’t just a nostalgia tour. Time away has rejuvenated Gravolin as a songwriter. Together the band have “about 20 songs under our belt, as of now, that aren’t released.”
“Pretty well immediately after that first conversation, we knew that new music would be on the cards,” he explains. “It's something that I didn't realise how badly I wanted to do.”
Gravolin, Faivre, and Caruso have known each other for nearly 20 years. As teenagers they formed The Bride which eventually evolved into Hellions. When the discussion of new music started, Gravolin thought it was inevitable, “it's definitely something in our blood.”
“Any music that I've written with other people, it's not quite the same as the bond that you forge with somebody when you're that young,” Gravolin says. “There are things that you can do together that can't be accomplished separately.
“I didn't know what to expect from that first phone call with Anthony about getting this tour together. As soon as we got off that phone call and we started discussing new music, it started to come out of me like sneezes. It was in this beautiful way.
“I can't remember the last time that music had come out of me like that,” he adds. “It was just because of that feeling of coming home and that comfortability between [us]. Nobody will ever know me as well as what these guys do.
“That feeling of reunion and comfortability gave way to a really joyful writing experience. With heightened emotions like that music and words come quite easily.”
The four friends went back to Thailand in January to record with longtime collaborator and producer, Shane Edwards. Fans are waiting to see if it’s a one-off single, EP, or even an album that came out of these sessions.
“I would love to do an album… I’d written I think it might have been 15 songs at that point in time, and then [Edwards] combed through everything and listened to what we had,” Gravolin recalls, pointing to an initial objective of recording two songs.
“Anthony and I wanted to do four, and really sort of push it but I guess because we haven't put something out since Rue in 2018, we haven't put something out in eight years.
“So it took a lot to ensure that the first things that we're putting out are up to the quality and standard that we had implemented for ourselves all those years ago,” he states.
Hellions have already teased new music with a picture of a .WAV file titled Fear Flow shown on their social media. Gravolin remains tight-lipped about any specific timings, only sharing that on this upcoming tour “people, at the very least, will be getting a heavy look into what that song is like if it isn't released before the tour.”
When asked whether these new songs begin where 2018’s Rue left off or whether it’s heading into brand new territory, Gravolin teases “it wouldn’t be what anybody would think.”
“Because we got so many demos together, it sort of covers the whole spectrum of colour and musicality that we have access to,” he explains. “We really tried to paint from every angle that we could and incorporate a little bit from all the different genres that we really liked.
“So it's a really broad spectrum of songs that we've got there. As far as the new ones that we'll be putting out, there's one melodic one and there's one that's really heavy and really bouncy.”
Tickets to Hellions’ Australian tour are on sale now.
Hellions – Opera Oblivia 10 Year Anniversary Tour
Thursday, May 7th – Max Watts, Melbourne, VIC (SOLD OUT)
Friday, May 8th – The Gov, Adelaide, SA
Saturday, May 9th – Freo Social, Fremantle, WA
Thursday, May 14th– Liberty Hall, Sydney, NSW
Friday, May 15th– The Triffid, Brisbane, QLD
Saturday, May 16th – Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast, QLD
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
