[Riff] 05.12.26: Fire Up The Barbie, Mate! - An Aussie 2025 Heavy Music Feature.
G’day, Mate!
International readers - time to throw on your khakis, drawl out an impersonation that honestly sounds way more New Zealander than Australian and gather a few more outdated tropes.
Locals, prep those tongs and lather up the barbie with oil, ‘cause we’ve got plenty reason enough to celebrate our increasing presence in the global heavy music sphere. As a nation of anti-authoritarian convicts, we’re by nature oppositional-defiant, a bit feral and therefore perfectly conducive as both patrons and purveyors of heavy/alternative music.
For the first Music Monday of 2026, I felt it best to get stuck into a feature of sorts. Particularly so as I’m currently working on a 2025 retrospective/2026 prospectus series known as Behind Screen and Speaker across our various blog/podcast domains.
Being one person amongst many, many fantastic artists on this dust-swept continent, I can only add in so much here. However, I’ve done my best to share as many high-quality Aussie releases today as I possibly can.
These aren’t in any order of preference, but obviously reflect my own preferences. I’ve elected to highlight the ones I have outside the lists further-on more as a showcase of the diverse subgenres on offer, than anything else. Treat all these releases as high-quality, and get listening!
I’ll have undoubtedly skipped out on more than a few for (relative) brevity today - hit us up in the comments below/on our social media to highlight which were your favourite Aussie releases of 2025. Let’s get the conversation going!
Get on it, crack a tinnie and turn those snags, ‘cause we’re about to feast on some delicious recent-release Australiana.
Peace, Love and She’ll Be Right My Moshpit-Ready Mates,
Brady.
C’arn KaAAAant - Have a Squiz at:
Nicolas Cage Fighter - I Watched You Burn (Metalcore/Metallic Hardcore)
Before I ever had anything approaching the notion of ISC being something past a pet hobby writing project, the very first Gig Review written for the site was a Nicolas Cage Fighter gig at Stay Gold, Melbourne in 2022. (See here for said review).
What a blessing it is. ‘It’ specifically being the recent spate of late-90’s/early-aughts metallic-hardcore, and other nostalgically caustic ‘core subgenres being melded into modern, thuggish concepts. Spearheading this charge from the humble climes of Ballarat, Victoria since 2011, NCF have seen an explosive rise due to their intense live shows and quality beatdown tunes.
I Watched It Burn outpaces the splendidly brutish prior LP The Bones That Grew From Pain, bringing a level of sonic intensity that I’m just so damn fucking grateful exists in an era of semi-post-hardcore-goes-djent-ish safe ‘core clones. If you find yourself in any form of malaise about the state of the Australian scene, I suggest you pick this badboy up. Like, now.
Congrats on the Metal Blade Records signing too, fellas! Stoked for ya’s.
Link to LP single ‘I Watched It Burn’ on Youtube:
NCF - AllMyLinks Page
(Event/Gig Links, Merch, Music Videos, Album Order, Socials Links etc)
2. Deliquesce - Saviour/Enslaver (Technical/Brutal Death Metal)
Link to Album-Stream via Youtube
(please follow through with artist links below and support via streaming/ordering etc!):
Righto, then.
We had our fun. Our nice dalliances into weird and exploratory intra-cosmic territory have been great fun, these past few years. Haven’t they? I mean, c’mon - Cryptic Shift’s Visitations From Enceladus LP but unironically, am I right?
Sure. But, like the nascent aggressive potential of a caged orc, brutal death metal is never one to be kept on any kind of leash for too long. We saw those chains break with a myriad of absolutely pummeling brutal-DM releases in 2025. Just absolute skull-cavers.
It’s brutal death metal’s turn. And now, it’s also Melbourne’s turn, a city more known for the sludge-addled/post-metal leaning or high-brow tech side of things, and less for straight-up unrepentant DM.
Minute-to-minute, Saviour/Enslaver is on the fucking warpath it seems. An unceasing, relentless barrage of blast-storm mayhem, punctuated by moments of (relative) riffage-calm that serve the pulse and longevity of the album really, really well. All of it wrapped up in a package technically proficient and ready to put up on the aural mantlepiece alongside Origin et al, as trophy prize.
Fanatically vicious, frenetically technical and above all - still carrying the neolithic cudgel of barbarism we all know and love for brutal DM.
Deliquesce LinkTree
(see above for: Socials Links, Aus/US/Europe Merch Store, Facebook, Instagram, Official Music Videos etc)
3. Depravity - Bestial Possession (Technical Death Metal/Melodeath)
I eagerly await a flood of fedora-sporting genre-beards screeching at me with their proudest ‘ACKSHYUALLY’ around my choice of subgenre above. 1. I honestly don’t care too much about subgenre labels, informative as they are and 2. Whatever, write your own article?
Jolly japes aside, make no mistake - I mention melodic death metal in its’ almost purest, most technically-on-paper sense. With more histrionics, groove and warbling leads than the above album, that’s about where melodicism stops. Sure, it’s likely more digestible and flavourful to the average non-death-metal-obsessed metal acolyte - but this thing is still ferocious, mark my words.
There’s no denying a strong Freedom Of Fear styled wizardry to the various lead-guitar leylines sprawled atop Bestial Possession, but I can’t also help but think the average FoF fan may grate at the step-up in heaviness this LP provides comparatively.
It’s incisive, hook-laden and filled with more shred than the total-sum grated cheese output of Domino’s Pizza in a week. Upper-crust Western Australian death-metal!
Depravity - Facebook
Official full-album stream, courtesy of label Transcending Obscurity Records on Youtube:
4. Cave Sermon - Fragile Wings (Progressive/Post-Metal, Post-Black Metal)
Being a nation of rowdy convict descendents, it’s unsurprising our lot of sunbaked rabble-rousers have gained international renown for our black metal savagery over the years. Less so but increasingly playing a stellar game of catch-up, are our more experimental, avant-garde, progressive black metal leanings.
Cave Sermon is the solo effort of one Charlie Park, but between the production and songwriting you’d swear a full outfit was involved. Eschewing some of the incredible 2024 release Divine Laughter’s Arcturus-coded jarring black metal, Fragile Wings ups the ante on the sludgey, riff-facing and voluminous post-metal aspects that’ve been evolving through Park’s work so far.
Speaking of work - this album surely does! The melding of very avant-garde experimentation with more monolithic, ambient and sparse moments doesn’t feel shoehorned or derivative. In fact, this LP serves as a fantastic reminder as to why we stick ‘post-’ prefixes on a lot of modern metal, these days. Minimalistic yet dense in the same breath, this is a real unique one and highly recommended.
Cave Sermon - Bandcamp
5. Pestilential Shadows - Wretch (Black Metal)
Corpse-paint and blastbeat enjoyers, rejoice! I made mention of our national prowess regarding black metal for a good reason. There are many, many other exhibits on display out there (and in some of the lists below) - let’s start with Wretch, the latest from Pestilential Shadows.
Comfortably inhabiting a sonic space within the Aussie scene since 2003, I’ve noticed these guys popping up more and more in many places - local/international bills, review sites, social media pages/profiles etc. And, with good cause! Bringing all of the malignancy, the furor (pun intended) and viscous bile of our domestic black metal nature, Wretch sees a serious upgrade in atmospheric depth. Not enough to square the band members into loafers and start looking like Weezer, though - if anything, it’s this additive ambience which gives the many, plentiful blasting sections more gravitas, heft and destructive capacity.
Take note, shoe-gazers - this is how you add in a sprig of atmosphere whilst still being heinous, fast and ruinously evil.
pestilential shadows - linktree
(See above for - Instagram, Facebook, Wretch Spotify stream, ‘Death Knell’ music video link)
Link to Wretch Album Premiere Stream, via Black Metal Promotion on Youtube:
Some More Tasty Aussie Album-Bites:
I’d be remiss not to remind you guys once more that the following are all releases I give as much credence to for artistic merit as the above. It’s moreso just a case of not wanting to make you guys scroll forever, and for me to release the article sometime this month/year.
Album-stream links are included for each in the list.
Dig into some more grouse Aussie musical grub with the following rippers from 2025:
Meth Leppard - Gatekeepers (Grindcore)
Vile Apparition - Malignity (Brutal/Technical Death Metal)
Uboa/Whitehorse - The Dissolution of Eternity (Experimental Electronica/Sludge/Doom/Industrial - Collaboration)
Divide and Dissolve - Insatiable (Drone/Doom)
Anoxia - Revel in Sin (Death Metal)
Valtari - Emperor (Melodeath/Melodic Black Metal)
Ashen - Leave The Flesh Behind (Death Metal)
Volatile Ways - Perfect Dark (Deathcore/Slam)
Werewolves - The Ugliest Of All (Deathgrind)
Iron Mind - Test of The Iron Mind (Crossover/Hardcore Punk)
Myriad Drone - A World Without Us (Post-Metal/Blackgaze/Alt-Prog)
Hebephrenique - Decathexis (Technical/Dissonant Death Metal)
Alder Glade - Holocene Extinction (Melodic/Post-Black Metal)
Forewarned - Only God Forgives (Metalcore/Hardcore)
Zeolite - L’appel Du Vide (Tech-Death/Deathcore)
No Apologies - Life (Crossover/Hardcore)
Goat Shaman - Monkey Palace (Stoner Rock/Metal, Doom)
Christ Dismembered - Ov Vampiricy (Black Metal)
Amammoth - Distant Skies And The Open Flies (Stoner Metal/Doom)
Hidden Intent - Terrorform (Thrash Metal)
MUNT - The World Is Not Yours (Deathgrind)
Deciduous Forest - Fields of Yore (Atmospheric/Post-Black Metal)
Dyssidia - Deeper Wells of Meaning (Progressive/Alt-Metal)
And From The Legion via our partner site/community, Musolegion, our Admins/Members are particularly enjoying:
Anoxia - Revel in Sin (Admin Sammy)
Cave Sermon - Fragile Wings (Member SW)
Abominator - The Fire Brethren (Blackened Death Metal, from Member AF)
(Note to Admins/Members reading this article - send me your picks and I’ll edit them into this post as we go!)
This is by no means an exclusive list. Heck, initially I’d slated myself to add four times more albums than what’s been featured here today. If there is interest from readers/community, I’d be happy to expand on this list in a future Music Monday feature. Here’s hoping the ongoing meme that is Australian internet (thanks, Turnbull…) doesn’t play up too much next week.
Stay tuned as I/we have plenty of reviews, gig reviews, podcast episodes, interviews etc already in the works.
As Always,
Peace, Love and Grindcore (Straya Style) - Brady & The ISC Team.