Dan talked to Aleks from Metal Alliance Festival and the bands playing this awesome festival this year!
Metal-Roos: Hi Aleks How is it going? It’s good to have you and the other bands here for this chat. Man, I’m so excited for this festival at the Factory Theatre Floor on February 3rd in Marrickville, Sydney. Apart from being the guitarist from Thraxas. You are also the founder of the Metal Alliance Festival. What inspired you to have a festival?
Thraxas: Hey! I’ve been good! Flat stick busy haha. I’m excited too, the last one we had we sold out and it was a really epic day. I was inspired to start this festival simply because I wanted to go bigger scale on event organising, and I guess I saw a gap in the industry to start a festival that houses all genres of metal. I definitely find sometimes that people get stuck on one sub genre of metal, and Metal Alliance helps not only open that up, but get people into new Aussie bands that they may not have heard before.
Metal-Roos: Your band Thraxas is currently recording a debut album. Can you share any updates on the project?
Thraxas: We are, its a big one too! Guitars, solos and bass are done. Vocals start next week and Izak will be in for drums early feb. We do everything backwards with recording haha. Makes for an easier process. We plan to release around mid year, with another “in the making of”, 2 music videos and a hell of a lot of songs. Can’t say anything about the title yet but you’ll find out soon!
Metal-Roos: Deprivation, man it must feel good to come off the back of winning the Aussie heat of the Wacken Battle, heading to Germany for the real thing, and then straight onto the Sepultura tour support. Tell us about it!
Deprivation: It’s been a surreal experience that’s for damn sure! We went into the Oz Wacken Battle with one thing on our minds and that was to play a kickass show. Next minute we’re flying across the globe, road tripping through Europe & asking ourselves “How the hell did we get here?!”. Representing our country in front of thousands at the largest Metal Festival on the planet was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity and we’re eternally grateful to all who helped make it possible.
Then to arrive home on such a high & be offered a support slot for all of Sepultura’s Good Things sideshows was the unthinkable icing on the cake! We played each gig like we were still on that stage in Germany and it paid off. The Sep crew were beyond great and the Brazilian Godzilla’s themselves welcomed us as equals & gave us memories we’ll never forget.
Expect the same energy and venom from us at Metal Alliance Fest.
Metal-Roos: So I hear Asura has a new drummer! Awesome news guys congrats. Fresh new lineup for 2024. I know Asura is busy writing new material. When can the fans expect to see a new record, and any exciting news coming up for the band?
Asura: Not withholding any setbacks that Asura has with band members coming and going in the past few years, it’s safe to say that our next release will encapsulate all which we’ve learned and crafted since the debut of our demo. We’ve really come together and worked on our core aspects. With that we decided that our fans, both old and new, deserve nothing but the very best, thus we’ve been focusing on the songs which really bring about the raw emotional charge and ferocity which someone expects from extreme metal, coupled with a refined and cultivated level of production. So as long as everything goes to plan in 2024, expect a recording from the mighty Asura.
Metal-Roos: Vexation has also grown from a 3 to 4-piece lineup, tell us about the new dude! What made you guys decide to expand the band? We’ve also just seen the new music video for “Chaos Eternal”, what does 2024 have in store for the band?
Vexation: Despite being able to really crush it as the three piece we were known as, we decided we needed a second guitarist to enrich the sound a bit more and add a new flair to the leads. Ryan Butler is his name. A veteran in the scene and a shred master. He was a former member of Harlott and Mason and we’re really stoked that he has climbed aboard the Vexy train! Last year was all about the few selective shows we played like the Vader support and a little “battery change” as well as officially “pinching off the log”, referring to our last record with one last music video; that being “Chaos Eternal”. This year we plan to play more shows more often, as well as drop a bunch of new audible and physical goodies consistently throughout the year so stay tuned!
Metal-Roos: As an independent band, Diskust has quite the archive. 5 successful national tours and supporting bands such as Revocation and Psycroptic. Can you give us some insight on the journey here?
Diskust: It’s been tough man, I won’t lie to you. This industry will eat you alive if you allow it to, and it’s been one hell of a ride thus far. Amongst the few wins have been many setbacks, and I’m sure any band can relate to that. But we’ve just kept pushing through the good and the bad, been honest to a fault, taken every opportunity by the horns, and managed to amass enough support to help hold us upright – And we really can’t be more thankful to those that have had our backs and come along on this crazy ride with us. There’s still plenty more to come.
Metal-Roos: Buried Shallow, you’ve had quite the start I hear, only launching in early 2023, releasing an EP in the same year, and now 2024, making your way across the country already for your first time to the East Coast and Sydney. Distance is no barrier for you guys, tell us a bit about how you guys started and where this immense drive stems from?
Buried Shallow: Well we all used to be in different bands, we used to play shows with each other and we all became friends. That’s where the drive comes from, we are friends first, band members second. We all have the same goals in music. Googz, mark and Charlie first got together and started writing then googz asked Brett to come play bass and Matt was a childhood friend of marks and they actually learnt there instruments together back in high school. We all enjoy each others company and that makes achieving goals easy and realistic.
Metal-Roos: After releasing “Warning Signs”, Loner, you guys have had a big kick off and tours lined up for 2024. You don’t see a lot of 8 strings in the scene, what influenced this heavier and lower tonal aspect? Lyrical content meets you face-to-face as well.
Loner: We’re extremely lucky to have had the support behind the album and our sounds, especially because we’ve been playing live for less than 1 year.
We wanted to try and do something different that not a lot of people were doing, we’re already influenced by a lot of bands that tune low, so we thought to tune even lower than that and then use a diminished fifth for some dissonance on 8 string guitars, there was a time in the scene where they were prominent but most seemed to either stop using them or the bands that did are no longer around. The aim with the music and the lyrics is to be heavy, visceral and confront issues like anxiety, depression and nihilism.
Metal-Roos: Stormtide, you’ve had some wicked opportunities the last few years, supporting Enisferum, Alestorm, Krisun, Wintersun and Eluvetie. What has been your favorite support so far, or tour, or even better maybe a funny story or two?
Stormtide: Getting to play alongside artists who have inspired us as a band and as people is a very surreal feeling. We were fortunate enough to be invited to play with Wintersun overseas, and this will always stick out in my mind as a highlight. Hanging out with the Wintersun lads after the show was great. Their guitarist, Asim, was only new to the band at the time and was still revelling in his new position. That revelry came to a head when he fell over and a hush fell over the whole venue; shortly followed by him jumping up, exclaiming “I’m… OK!” to great cheers from the punters. These opportunities have helped us to define what we want to achieve as musicians, and it’s always humbling to learn from the greats by seeing how they conduct themselves – both on stage and off.
Metal-Roos: Pyrefly, how was the feeling of supporting Avatar last year? I know KJ has an Avatar tattoo on his chest, so he is a serious fan. Can we expect to see any more international support in 2024?
Pyrefly: Honestly words can’t describe that feeling. I grew up on the other side of the metro barricade and finding ourselves looking out over such a huge and welcoming audience was breathtaking. We were so lucky to be able to work with AJ and Avatar on such a huge show, and being able to be a part of that was a dream come true. It was hard not being an absolute fanboy though.
We are working on building our local scene circuit and expanding out to other cities in Australia this year, but we are keeping contact with some incredible new allies on the scene and are looking to hit you guys with some big news soon!
Metal-Roos: Burial Chamber, 2023 saw the release of Symbolic Flesh Entombed and a successful tour. What a fucken monster of an album, pure old school death metal. My cup of tea for sure. What’s next in store for the band? You boys are back into writing again for the next record?
Burial Chamber: Cheers guys,yeah we are stoked with how the album turned out and it’s probably our heaviest so far. Gus Bonic (Emerald Point Studios) has mixed and produced all 3 albums, he knows our sound and always gets the albums sounding brutal particularly the latest release.
The writing process has just begun for album number 4. We’ve got a couple of songs on the go that are still in the skeleton stage but already sounding super heavy. We’ll juggle both gigs and writing for a while until it gets closer to the recording date we set then we’ll concentrate just on the album.
Metal-Roos: Aleks, A big massive thank you for your time and also the bands as well. Is there anything you want to say to the fans who have got their ticket and for those who are thinking of going to the Metal Alliance Festival for 2024.
Thraxas: It’s once a year, 10 band lineup, with this one being the biggest yet, don’t miss out seriously. If you’ve already got your ticket, great! The sydney scene this year is struggling, particularly with over saturation, so buying a pre-sales, you’re ensuring that shows continue to happen. It’s a huge day, and a lot of fun. I encourage those to come at the very beginning and stay till the very end for the full experience.