Fresh Finds: Class Of 2025 – Aussie Acts To Add To Your Playlist

Rod Whitfield, Journalist

Rod Whitfield

Rod Whitfield is a retired musician and long-time music writer. He joined his first band on drums way back in 1987, playing in myriad original rock acts before hanging up the sticks and retiring in 2015. In 1995, he joined Forte Magazine, Geelong’s premier street press magazine, as a journalist and has not stopped writing about music since. He has written for The Music, UK Prog Magazine, Beat, was The Buzz Magazine’s chief rock and metal writer for eight years, and has worked for countless online publications and zines. 

Since retiring from the original band scene, he has become a novelist, and at the time of writing he is completing work on his fourth book, the third work in a trilogy based on an upcoming fantasy/combat/adventure video game, as well as designing the narrative of the game itself. Keep an eye out for the release of Brides of Vampira in the coming years. 

Features / Music
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Are All Grown Up
Rod Whitfield chats with The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus' Ronnie Winter to discover the secrets behind their enduring success.
Reviews / Album
Album Review: Architects - Holy Hell
"Holy Hell is a monster."
Reviews / Live
Live Review: Parkway Drive, Killswitch Engage, Thy Art Is Murder
"Something eye-popping, something seismic, something truly special."
Reviews / Album
Album Review: SHVPES - Greater Than
"A big, anthemic, fist-pumping although idiosyncratic modern rock album."
Reviews / Album
Album Review: The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
"This is an album that somehow manages to be grim, gloomy, conceptually dystopian and devastating, but inspiring and cathartic at the same time."
Features / Music
Hellions Might Not Know What They Are But They Know What They're Doing
With Hellions' new "mixed bag" of an album on the way, drummer Anthony Caruso tells Rod Whitfield that the characteristically unclassifiable outfit have "nailed it". For now.
Reviews / Album
Album Review: Haken - Vector
"There seems to be little this band cannot do."
Reviews / Album
Album Review: AlithiA - The Moon Has Fallen
"This is a band that squeezes more ideas into a single song than many bands put into an entire album."
Reviews / Live
Live Review: Dimmu Borgir, Earth Rot
"They still cut the black metal mustard like a freshly sharpened Norse warrior’s battle axe."
Reviews / Album
Album Review: Hellions - Rue
"Better to have too much inspiration than too little."
Features / Music
Imogen Clark's On The Road To World Domination
At 23 years old, Imogen Clark has already released album number two to universal critical and fan acclaim. Ahead of her upcoming national tour, Rod Whitfield had a chat with the singer-songwriter about a growing fan base, having control of your career and working with Mark Lizotte aka Johnny Diesel.
Features / Music
Kenny Wayne Shepherd: Even Legends Need To "Adapt Or Perish"
"We've always been a live band and it's always been about the live show."