“Well, we were better than a turd in a bowl,” stated John. “We have lit the match. We are keeping the flame of SNOT alive. And it has been so much better than we or anyone else could have expected.” We caught up with SNOT bassist John “Tumour” Fahnestock to talk about how the band’s been going, what’s changed, and coming back to Australia with Soulfly.

Photos from Cryptopsy at Crowbar on the All So Vile tour, delivering unrelenting brutality in support of An Insatiable Violence.

There were 50,000 people at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium to say farewell to AC/DC’s PWR/UP Tour. It was also time to farewell the band that put Australian music on the world map. The band formed in 1973. Their first live performance was at Chequers nightclub in Sydney on 31 December, New Year's Eve 1973, and now this was probably their last ever performance in Australia.

This was the band’s first headline gig in Brisbane in 7 years. It was wonderful to see them back in Brisbane at the Crowbar to kick off the mystery gig for the venue’s birthday bash. It was a night of the various flavours of hard punk rock, from its hard edge to its ‘poppier’ heart, with Bella Amor and Haters supporting. Tonight Alive are back.

Furnace And The Fundamentals returned to Brisbane for their Christmas party, reworking pop songs into festive fun on stage.

Back in Australia for the first time in over a decade. A sold out Triffid got absolutely wrecked as Dying Fetus tore through Brisbane with support from 200 Stab Wounds.

Sepultura has reached the end of the road and has chosen to depart via a conscious and planned death. The band are marking 40 years together and have been saying goodbye at the same time with a farewell tour spanning the globe, which has included a slew of venue upgrades and sold out shows across Latin America, Europe, and the US. Now it’s Australia’s turn, with a run of capital city shows this March.

Australia, prepare for impact — American technical death metal legends ORIGIN are returning to obliterate stages across the country for the first time in over a decade. Being hailed as one of the most ferociously technical and forward-thinking bands in extreme metal; ORIGIN Return to Australia in June 2026 to obliterate stages in the cities of Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Frankston, Melbourne and Sydney.

Seminal Australian metalcore outfit The Amity Affliction have today announced an extensive regional tour set to kick off in February 2026. The band will be hitting 21 dates spread across Queensland, NSW, Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia, with support from In Hearts Wake (select dates) & Redhook (all dates).

In early 2026, the beautiful chaos that is BETTER LOVERS, comprised of Greg Puciato (vocals), Jordan Buckley (guitar), Will Putney (guitar, producer), Steve Micciche (bass) and Clayton "Goose" Holyoak (drums), will head down under for their Aussie live debut in January, joined by special guests SPLIT CHAIN and BLIND GIRLS. And today, BETTER LOVERS have unveiled their local support acts for Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne, Belgrave and Adelaide.

Three time GRAMMY nominee YUNGBLUD has announced Brisbane punks Dune Rats as special guests on his IDOLS Australian tour. Fresh off the success of One More Time, his chart topping EP with Aerosmith, YUNGBLUD returns in 2026 for his biggest shows yet, with multiple dates already sold out and upgrades added due to demand.

ENSIFERUM, one of the world's leading Folk Metal Bands, return to Australia for their "Winter Storm Over Australia" tour late May 2026. With their 9th studio album under their belt Winter Storm, and celebrating their 30th anniversary, these shows will be huge. Get your drinking horns and Viking helmets ready.

Superheaven will bring their post-hardcore grit, full-bodied and fuzzed-out distortion and hazy alternative melodies to Australia this April/May. With special guests, Angel Du$t, the tour pairs two of the most potent forces in the grunge revival and melodic hardcore together for one seismic tour.

Crowd and social photos capturing the chaos and energy of the day are up now.

The Mayhem Ball leaned heavily into spectacle, narrative and visual excess. The ambition was clear, but the constant layering of production left little room for spontaneity or musical risk, creating a performance that felt impressive yet emotionally distant. 

All Time Low brought their Good Things sideshow to The Tivoli with support from Friends of Friends. Check out all the action in the gallery.

The Good Things 2025 Festival endedon a high note: there were beach balls, chicken crowd surfers, banana people and crowd surfing boat races. And it didn’t rain or storm. Bonus! Here are the highlights.

Bird’s Robe marked fifteen years with a birthday show at The Brightside. The night brought together COG, Caspian, Kodiak Empire, hazards of swimming naked, Echotide and Squat Club. Check out the gallery from the night.

Australia’s greatest ever thrash band, Mortal Sin, celebrate 40 years of mayhem in 2026!
Mortal Sin’s place in thrash metal history is undisputed and 2026 will see them celebrate their career like never before.

The night of music had already been set like a blender to genre purée and Wargasm were only going to intensify that reality. Their sound is a collision of guitars, bass, thrashed drums, and electronic rave music and the genre is picking ‘your own adventure’.

The Brightside got the full Wargasm treatment with Poltergeist9000 ahead of Good Things. We were there, check out our gallery.

Canadian powerhouse Alissa White-Gluz starts her long-awaited solo career with her new single, “The Room Where She Died”, out now everywhere via Napalm Records. Having performed on the world’s biggest stages as one of death metal’s most recognisable voices, ALISSA teams up with Oliver Palotai of power metal virtuosos Kamelot.

Taylor Momsen's Christmas extended play (EP) ‘Pretty Reckless Christmas’ is a rock and roll-infused Christmas release. If you must listen to Christmas music, then this EP is good for not torturing people as the music is good. It has the Pretty Reckless band signature sonic palate of loud, emotional, and uncompromising style tinged with those holiday sounds.

LORD OF THE LOST goes full opulence with “What Have We Become”, the latest single off their upcoming album, OPVS NOIR Vol. 2, out on December 12, 2025 via Napalm Records. Working with electronic music artist IAMX, the kings of versatility build an emotional masterpiece, with Chris Harms and IAMX duetting in an exceptionally moving way, expanding their musical universe.

Breakthrough Mongolian rockers UUHAI have released the second single from their upcoming debut album, Human Herds, out January 9, 2026 via Napalm Records. With the originally-released demo version of “Khar Khulz” already gaining seven million views on YouTube, the band has finally unveiled the final master of the track.

Explosive Ukrainian metalcore force SPACE OF VARIATIONS returns with Poisoned Art, out on February 13, 2026 via Napalm Records. Blending furious brutality with heartfelt emotion, the four-piece band sheds their skin and continues to push the boundaries of modern metal, with their new record showing a fresh facet of their ever-evolving sound—a new era.

Switzerland’s unstoppable juggernaut  PALEFACE SWISS continue their strong momentum into the end of 2025 with the release of their new single ‘Everything Is Fine’, on all digital platforms together with an emotional moving new music video.

Angel Du$t announce their new album COLD 2 THE TOUCH, returning today with new single ‘DU$T.’ Out February 13 via Run For Cover Records/Civilians, the 26 minute album delivers eclectic, hard hitting rock & roll that pushes their aggression, hooks, personality and ferocity to new heights. ‘DU$T’ is out now.

‘The World Is Not Yours’ is the long-overdue debut album from Melbourne based purveyors of blackened grinding death, MUNT. Across thirteen relentless tracks, the band forges black metal, death metal, grindcore, hardcore, and noise into a dense slab of raw aggression, sharpened by a bitter philosophical edge.

The band says of The Road "We had an absolute ball on our epic 6 week tour of Europe and the UK and can't wait to get back there! These are just some of the highlights and good times we had the opportunity to have on the Road! "We love The Road Love the Freedom" 

‘Conflict DLC’ captures doomscrolling, consuming despair and online loneliness as HEALTH blends industrial heaviness with ethereal vocals. Songs like ‘Vibe Cop’, ‘Trash Decade’ and ‘Antidote’ dive into fear, vulnerability and the pain of modern life. It’s terrifyingly beautiful, a reminder that the digital world is a two-edged sword of light and darkness.

Better Lovers celebrate the one-year anniversary of their blistering debut album Highly Irresponsible with a deluxe edition featuring two new tracks: ‘The Impossible End’ and ‘Don’t Forget To Say Please’. The band will make their Australian debut in 2026, hitting Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne, Belgrave and Adelaide with Split Chain and Blind Girls.

SLAYER’s iconic second studio album, Hell Awaits, is set to receive a 40th anniversary edition reissue via Metal Blade Records next year! “It’s the record where SLAYER became SLAYER.” That’s what Kerry King says about Hell Awaits.

The new album ‘Flowers’ has huge breakdowns, melodic guitars, and emotional lyricism about the disappointments in life, frustration, and the desire to feel alive. The commanding synths, soaring clean vocals, and dark heavy tones show The Devil Wears Prada as a band that continue to grow and evolve their sound.

There Is No Memory is an album steeped in life (and lives) lived, in recollections of the past, in the absence of what once was, in the lacuna brought on by the memories of what had been. Jorgensen knew he wanted to write an album about memories, and while demoing tracks, something happened that felt connected.

Shadow Work by Canadian deathcore legends Despised Icon is a scorched-earth assault of guttural roars, bone-crushing riffs, and machine-gun drumming. Featuring guests from Kublai Khan, Carnifex, Tom Barber of Chelsea Grin, and Misstiq, it’s pure chaos and adrenaline from start to finish, the perfect soundtrack to the zombie apocalypse.

“ALL THAT FOLLOWS marks the end of The Death We Seek and the start of a new chapter. These songs reflect our independence, experimentation and collaboration like never before. We explore disillusionment, inequality, betrayal and life’s ambiguity, pouring every experience into our music. It is rarely a happy story but always a cathartic one,” says Wille.

Speaking about the EP, Taylor said: “Taylor Momsen’s Pretty Reckless Christmas started as just one song, but the moment we got into the studio, it took on a life of its own. There was so much emotion, nostalgia and chaos wrapped up in it that it didn’t feel right to leave it standing alone. To really honor it, I needed to build a whole world around it.”

Brisbane nu-metal provocateurs Headwreck have dropped their electrifying new EP 'Attitude Adjustment', and share the video for new single "Razor". Headwreck are poised to make a loud, unapologetic statement in the alternative metal scene.

From releasing three brand-new tracks to touring across their own country with the title in blind sight, Japanese band coldrain have kept anticipation high. Now, the quintet has finally unveiled their new EP “OPTIMIZE ”