Interview by Angela Croudace
Returning to Australia after a three-year absence, nothing, nowhere. is set to reconnect with a fanbase he clearly holds close. Speaking ahead of the tour, the man behind nothing, nowhere, Joe Mulherin reflects on the long gap between visits, admitting it feels like he “just” played here, only to realise how much time has passed. That distance has only heightened his anticipation, especially when it comes to Australian crowds, which he describes as among the most passionate in the world.
There’s a genuine affection in the way he talks about the country, not just the shows, but the experience itself. From ferry rides into Sydney to snorkelling and embracing the unfamiliar, his last trip left a lasting impression. With family ties now rooted here, Australia feels less like a stop on the map and more like a second home.
This upcoming run isn’t just another tour; it’s a celebration. Marking a decade of nothing, nowhere.
The Return of the Reaper tour will blend old favourites with newer material, offering fans a full-circle moment. Joe’s excitement also extends to the lineup, bringing along close friends and collaborators, creating what he describes as a “summer camp” atmosphere on the road.
After an intensely isolating period writing in Vermont, this tour arrives at the perfect time—both a creative release and a reminder of connection.


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Interview by Kris Peters
Australia, prepare to set your fazers to stun this September, with Welsh ragga metal legends SKINDRED primed to return to our shores for their biggest ever Australian headline tour! Opening proceedings on Tuesday 1 September in Perth, SKINDRED will head through Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, and close out on Sunday 6 September in Brisbane.
Wielding a formidable (and deserved) reputation as one of the best live bands on the planet, SKINDRED have been stupefying audiences with their heart-thumping blend of reggae, punk, hip hop, nu metal, rock and electronica since forming in the late 90s. Hailing from Newport in Wales, SKINDRED's innovation and hybrid agility saw the group explode out of the underground and into enduring infamy, now with eight studio albums to date, multiple award wins, countless performances and millions of fans spanning the globe, all under the ardent gaze of frontman Benji Webbe.
Releasing their debut album Babylon in 2002, SKINDRED have consistently unleashed new music throughout their career, and 2026 is no exception with the hotly-anticipated release of their ninth studio album You Got This due out on April 17. Featuring the newly slimmed-down trio of Webbe, Mikey Demus and Arya Goggin working alongside GRAMMY-winning producer Jay Ruston (Diana Ross, Meat Loaf, Mr Bungle), You Got This picks up where the band's acclaimed 2023 album Smile left off, with vibrant dancehall hues fused with hooks, earworms and hard-hitting slammers all lying in wait on album #9; and it's a collection of songs that are also set to inevitably stun in a live setting.
On a live front, SKINDRED are certainly not your average band, with their exuberant brand of chaos never skimping on unity as well as pedal-to-the-metal technicality. Whether performing alongside the likes of KISS, Korn, Papa Roach and Rob Zombie, or leaving festival crowds in a sweaty euphoria on some of the biggest global stages, it's not hyperbole to declare that a SKINDRED live show is something you'll be talking about for years, if not decades, to come. Most recently delighting Aussie fans in 2024, performing as part of Knotfest Australia, SKINDRED's previous down under performances have been praised time and time again.
HEAVY sat down with Webbe to talk about the album and more.


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If there's one topic sure to divide opinion in the world of music it's tribute bands and the rapid growth of such bands around the globe. Those who support tribute bands argue points such as providing accessible, affordable entertainment, keeping classical music alive and preserving musical history while those opposed argue tribute bands impact artist authenticity by oversaturating venues and reducing opportunities for original bands who play their own music.
That debate has recently spread to social media platforms like Facebook, whose new META algorythm has censored tribute bands and their videos, to the extent of closing down pages dedicated to tribute acts. With two successful international tribute bands in CHOP SUEY and SLIP NOT heading to Australia this May for a run of shows, HEAVY took the opportunity to sit down with the man behind these two bands and one of the world's leading experts on the tribute market, ANDRE JOYZI, to get his perspective on the global tribute band phenomina.  ANDRE JOYZI, to get his perspective on the global tribute band phenomina. 
"Basically, if you don't think with your ego there's nothing wrong with playing in a covers or tribute band," Joyzi began. "When I was 23 I decided I was going to be a professional metal drummer. There was nothing specific like it's going to have to be death metal or It's going to have to be this or that, because there's nothing I love more than playing metal live and the feeling you get from that. I made the early decision that I was going to do both (covers/tribute and originals), because nothing says that you can't".


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Interview by Ali Williams
Hot Mulligan’s latest chat with HEAVY finds the band exactly where good bands tend to be after years of grinding away: confident, funny, slightly unhinged in the best way, and still refreshingly free of self-important rubbish. Speaking with Ali Williams ahead of their April return to Australia, the group as a band, have earned its growing reputation. These guys roll on in with the kind of dry humour and sideways banter that suggests Hot Mulligan are far more interested in taking the piss out of themselves than posing like tortured visionaries. Just like their music, their attitudes have pulse, and more importantly, it makes them feel like actual people rather than another touring act reciting the usual promo script. 
The band are heading back to Australia after a warmly received first visit in 2024, this time with bigger rooms, stronger ticket sales, and enough demand to add a second Melbourne show after the first sold out. They speak about that first Australian run with genuine fondness, describing it as a leap into the unknown that paid off far better than expected. There is a clear affection for the smaller, more intimate venues too, with Hot Mulligan admitting they thrive in rooms where the barrier between band and audience is basically nonexistent. That detail says plenty. For all the upward momentum behind them, they still seem most at home when a show feels sweaty, immediate, and a little rough around the edges. Australia, clearly, gave them exactly that, and now they’re coming back for six shows as part of a schedule that barely lets them breathe before moving on to Singapore and then their first-ever tour of Japan. 
They explain the the band’s history without wasting time trying to inflate it into some grand rock fairytale. Their beginnings were deeply DIY, gloriously unflashy, and stitched together from local bands, trial and error, and the kind of long-term persistence that most “overnight success” stories quietly leave out. They talk openly about how the band’s growth was gradual at first, before a pandemic-era release gave things a serious push and shifted them into a different gear. Even then, there’s no victory lap in the way they tell it. Hot Mulligan sound more amused than amazed by their own rise, which somehow makes it more impressive. They have been at this for over a decade, building audience trust the slow way, and the result is a band with real international pull that still behaves like it can’t quite believe people in London, Australia, and now Japan are yelling for them to show up. 
Between the deadpan cracks about their past, the tongue-in-cheek nonsense about genre labels, and the general feeling that any one of them would happily derail a serious moment for a laugh, there is still a strong sense of gratitude running underneath it all. Hot Mulligan sound like a band fully aware of how lucky they are to be hauling their songs across the world, but also one that has worked hard enough to deserve every sold-out room and every passport stamp. That is really the takeaway here: not some neat genre tag or tidy career narrative, but a portrait of a band whose personality has grown right alongside its audience. They are funny without being flippant, sincere without getting sappy, and busy carving out a global path that still feels grounded in the scrappy spirit that got them moving in the first place. Go check them out and show them some lovin. Tickets, tour dates and information are available at www.ticketek.com.au as well as the bands page https://hotmulligan.band/pages/tour


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Interview by Ali Williams

H.E.A.T are not exactly sitting around polishing old trophies and talking about the glory days. When HEAVY's Ali Williams caught up with Jimmy Jay, the Swedish melodic rock machine was holed up in rehearsal mode, fresh off the Spanish leg of their Welcome To The Future 2026 run and already gearing up for the next round of work. 
In classic H.E.A.T fashion, there is no neat little pause between touring and recording. The band is heading into Hamburg to start work on the next album, with more than twenty songs already written and waiting to be narrowed down to the strongest ten or so. Jimmy made it clear this one is being approached with a more live, in-the-room mindset too, leaning back toward the kind of energy that made earlier releases hit so hard. Less stitched together in separate corners, more five blokes in a room pushing air and rattling the walls. That alone should be enough to get fans interested before a single note has even escaped into the wild. 
There is also something deeply satisfying about hearing a band twenty years in still sound hungry rather than merely organised. H.E.A.T hit their 20-year anniversary next year, which is long enough for most bands to either implode, become a tribute act to themselves, or start releasing albums that sound like they were assembled by committee and a legal team. Jimmy, though, spoke with the kind of grounded pride that only comes from a band that has genuinely worked for its place. He describes H.E.A.T as classic Scandinavian melodic heavy metal and hard rock, and there is no need to dress that up in fancier language than it deserves. They know what they are, they know what they do well, and they have built a loyal following by sticking a boot through the door not by politely knocking. 
Coming out of the Stockholm suburbs, with the broader Scandinavian legacy of hard rock and metal humming in the background, has clearly helped shape that instinct. Not in a smug, self-congratulatory way, either. More in the sense that if you grow up in a place where this music is woven into the cultural fabric, it is easier to treat it as something lived rather than borrowed. 
That authenticity carries through to the band’s line-up story, which Jimmy recounted without turning it into some dramatic soap opera. H.E.A.T began as a six-piece, later dropped to five, and have only really had one major shake-up at the microphone. After original vocalist Kenny Leckremo left, Erik Grönwall stepped in for a decade-long run before moving on, with Kenny eventually returning and bringing things full circle. The result now is a band that feels about as close to its original DNA as it possibly can. 
For longtime fans, that matters. For newer ones, it explains why H.E.A.T still feel connected to their roots instead of merely trading on them. Jimmy also touched on the audience the band attracts, and it was one of the more telling parts of the chat. He reckons the crowd seems to stay roughly the same age, which is a very funny way of saying younger fans keep finding them while the old guard refuses to bugger off. That is not a bad place to be. It means the band has managed the rare trick of staying relevant without trying to act twenty years younger than they are. No desperate trend-chasing, no identity crisis, just a solid crowd of people who actually give a damn about music. 
Of course, for Australian fans, the immediate excitement is the upcoming run of shows in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney this April. It will be the band’s third trip Down Under, which means they are well past the polite “great to be here” stage and into the territory of knowing what they are in for. Jimmy spoke warmly about returning, even if the small matter of a 25-hour flight sits between Stockholm and Brisbane like a punishment designed by an especially vindictive travel agent. 

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Interview by Angela Croudace
Dr. Mike Trubetskov isn’t just a metal producer—he’s a guide into one of the genre’s most misunderstood elements: synths. Based in Melbourne, he works with heavy bands to shape what he calls their “cinematic sound,” and a huge part of that comes from what sits beneath the obvious.
For Mike, synths aren’t always meant to be heard, they’re meant to be felt. Whether it’s a subtle, slow-moving pad or an industrial, distorted layer cutting through dense guitars, these sounds define the emotional weight of a track. Remove them, and something vital disappears.
What stands out is his balance between creativity and restraint. He approaches each song like a puzzle, filling gaps instinctively while respecting the band’s vision. Too much layering? It kills the song. The right touch? It elevates everything.
He’s also quick to point out that great synth work starts with songwriting, not sound design. A strong melody that fits naturally within the track will always win over something overly complex. From following vocal lines to adding hidden counter-melodies deep in the mix, these small, often unnoticed details are what transform a good track into something immersive and alive.
There’s also a technical intensity behind it all. In a genre built on distortion, synths need to fight for space—often pushed through layers of saturation to cut through, or buried with reverb to create an eerie, almost subconscious presence. It’s this constant push and pull between clarity and atmosphere that defines modern metal production.
For anyone looking to learn, Mike’s approach is both reassuring and challenging: trust your instincts, focus on the music first, and don’t rely on trends to carry your sound. He shares more of this insight on his YouTube channel, Doctor Mike Metal, where he breaks down techniques and encourages artists to experiment, refine, and ultimately find their own voice.


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Interview by Angela Croudace
Los Angeles duo sace6 are carving out a striking space in modern heavy music, blending R&B melodies with emotionally charged metal textures. In conversation with HEAVY, Sace and Noah reveal the deeply personal roots behind their name, with 6 honouring Sace’s father as a baseball player and serving as a symbol of inspiration.
Their latest project, Brutalist, reflects both sonic intensity and immersive world-building, pairing pop-forward vocals with what the band describes as “brutal” emotional weight. The duo emphasised a unique creative process built on trust, often working separately to fully realise ideas before combining them into something cohesive. That authenticity has helped shape a sound that feels both unpredictable and intentional, with tracks like Ego marking defining moments in their evolution.
Celebrating a decade of darkness, nothing, nowhere. returns to Australia this month, bringing The Return Of The Reaper tour with special guests sace6 and Closure. The run begins April 16 in Brisbane before hitting Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and concluding in Perth on April 23.
For sace6, the tour marks a major milestone and their first chance to connect with Australian audiences face-to-face for the first time ever. Check out the full interview above.

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Interview by Kris Peters
In any serious conversation about death metal, Vomitory’s name is a must-mention. Formed in 1989, the Swedish band unleashed eight blistering albums between 1996 and 2011, cementing their status as genre titans before parting ways in 2013. However, their retirement was short-lived, as they returned to the stage in 2019 to mark their 30th anniversary. Now, three years after the release of their critically acclaimed comeback album All Heads Are Gonna Roll in 2023, Vomitory are back with their latest beast, In Death Throes, due out on April 10.
According to drummer Tobias Gustafsson, while the unmistakable Vomitory sound remains, the new album cranks up the intensity. “In Death Throes picks up where All Heads Are Gonna Roll left off, but we’ve turned the intensity up a notch. Christian (Fredriksson, new guitarist) quickly found his place and even contributed music to four killer tracks. These additions bring a bit of diversity to our sound without straying too far from the formula.”
HEAVY sat down with drummer Gustafsson to get the full rundown, asking him to dive deeper into the musical side of the album and what Vomitory were going for this time around.
"We continued on the same path as we did on our comeback album All Heads Are Going to Roll," he offered. "So we continued writing in the in the same way. But in hindsight, this new album turned out a bit more intense than the previous one, which is not a bad thing for a death metal band (laughs)."
In the full interview, Tobias goes into more detail about how In Death Throes picks up where All Heads Are Gonna Roll left off, the added intensity in the music, and how new guitarist Christian Fredriksson contributed to the overall product.
We spoke about the early days of the band and where they fit in, the parting of ways in 2013 and his feelings at the time, the circumstances that brought them back together and how much planning was behind that decision, the importance of their comeback album All Heads Are Going to Roll and more.


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Interview by Kris Peters
Patient Sixty-Seven have become one of the most compelling and community‑driven voices in modern metalcore - a band built not on hype or industry shortcuts, but on heart, resilience, and the belief that heavy music can be a lifeline. Emerging from the isolated but fiercely creative city of Perth, Australia, P67 have spent the past decade turning personal struggle into connection, and connection into a movement that now has reached metalcore fans across the globe.
From their earliest releases, Patient Sixty-Seven stood out for their emotional honesty - songs that didn’t shy away from fear, grief, or self‑doubt, but instead embraced them as part of the human experience. That vulnerability resonated deeply, helping the band build a loyal, engaged, and heartfelt community long before the industry took notice. Fans didn’t just listen; they shared stories, found comfort in the lyrics, and formed bonds with each other that extended far beyond the music.
Now, Patient Sixty-Seven are stepping into their most significant chapter yet. In May this year, the band will join Of Mice & Men and Crystal Lake on a major Australian tour - a career‑defining moment that places them alongside some of the most influential names in modern heavy music. It’s a testament to how far they’ve come, and a signal of where they’re headed next.
HEAVY caught up with vocalist Tom Kiely to find out more. One of the topics of discussion is how the band approaches major International supports. Do they go out there to warm the crowd up and play a role, or do they attack it with more vigour and go out there with a view to blowing everyone else off stage?
"I think for us, we just want to be ourselves," Tom measured. "I think obviously we want to make sure that we bring a high level of energy and intensity, because we know that ultimately our role on the tour is to get the crowd warmed up; to get the crowd moving; to get the crowd excited for the bands that are coming after us. By doing that it leans nicely into what we like to do anyway, which is play with a lot of energy and get the crowd involved. We try to be interactive and try and bring that spark to the stage and after our set's finished, hopefully people are even more excited for the next few bands.
Opening is always tricky because you know the crowd's definitely still getting warmed up and maybe not moving as much, so it's our job to shake off any cobwebs people have if they haven't been to a show in a while. We do what we can to get people banging their heads and maybe getting a mosh pit going. We find that a lot of the times once you start talking to the crowd and interacting with them there's a lot of people who are ready to get moving. If we can get a few mosh pits going, that'll be a highlight for sure (laughs)."
In the full interview, Tom talked more about the run of shows with Of Mice & Men and Crystal Lake, where they fit in with the line-up, what to expect from their live show and what three songs concert goers can listen to in order to get to know the band before the shows.
He also spoke about curating a set list to appeal to fans of the headliners while also playing their strongest material, how far advanced work is on their new album, what direction it is going to take musically and more.
Of Mice & Men 2026 Australian Tour Dates With Crystal Lake
Tuesday 5th May – PERTH, Magnet House
Thursday 7th May – ADELAIDE, Lion Arts Factory
Friday 8th May – MELBOURNE, 170 Russell
Saturday 9th May – SYDNEY, Manning Bar
Sunday 10th May – BRISBANE, The Triffid
Tickets https://thephoenix.au/of-mice-and-men/


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Interview by Kris Peters
Australia and New Zealand, big things are coming! In just a matter of days, two musical heavyweights will begin a colossal arena run, with Florida hybrid heavies A DAY TO REMEMBER and California mainstays PAPA ROACH joining forces for the BIG ROCK TOUR, joined by special guests LANDMVRKS.
Set to commence on Saturday, April 4 in Perth, A DAY TO REMEMBER and PAPA ROACH will journey the BIG ROCK TOUR through Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane arenas, before closing out in Auckland on Wednesday 15 April.
Two-time GRAMMY-nominated and Platinum-selling rockers PAPA ROACH have perfected evolution and raw power over the course of 30 years. Hailing from Vacaville, California and forming back in the early 90s, PAPA ROACH embody resilience in every sense of the word.
Teaming up with The Used in 2023 for a double-header Australian run, PAPA ROACH balanced fan-favourites with plenty of surprises for their Aussie fans. And if the walls could talk at any of the countless venues PAPA ROACH have played throughout their careers across the globe, both as the main event and alongside Red Hot Chili Peppers, Limp Bizkit, Eminem and more, the resounding sentiment would be that PAPA ROACH aren't just revered for their longevity; this is a band who can adapt, survive and thrive, brandishing an underdog spirit with prime-time appeal. And they'll be bringing it with spades alongside A DAY TO REMEMBER.
HEAVY sat down with frontman Jacoby Shaddix to chat more.
"It's gonna be a banger of a tour, man. We're super excited about it," he beamed. "I've been anticipating this one for a minute, so it's great to be here in Australia, and great to be on the Big Rock Tour - I love that name too (laughs)."
We ask what has changed with Papa Roach since they were here last with The Used in 2023.
"Oh man…" he measured. "A bunch of new music. We've been writing new music and we've got something that we're really excited about. We've been releasing new music and we've had some great successes recently worldwide that are just blowing my mind. We've got this song right now, Wake Up Calling, that's in it's third week at number one in the rock charts in America which is awesome. To be stepping into 2026 and kicking it off here in Australia is going to be amazing. We've got a big year planned ahead of us so there's a lot of good things going on in the P Roach world."
Down the track we dive deeper into the history of Papa Roach, touching on the success of their second album Infest and what his initial thoughts of the album were.
"It was special to us," he recalled, smiling "I really feel that we thought we had something special, we just didn't know the world was gonna connect with it in such a way that they did. We thought we were gonna put out an album, tour in a van and maybe sell 150, 200 000 records, and that's not what happened (smiles). We put out an album and it was like a rocket ship ride to the top. I didn't know how to handle fame. I didn't know how to handle success, and it was just a very wild time for us. I'll tell you this, we had a lot of great times in that era and a lot of big wins and a lot of big moments. I look back upon that time of my life with a lot of… there were great moments that I was proud of, and then there were moments that I was like 'man, I regret that'. There's no handbook to becoming famous. There were moments that I handled it gracefully, and moments that I just went at it like an idiot."
In the full interview, Jacoby talks more about the tour and what to expect, the three bands on the Big Rock Tour and how they compliment each other, the early days of Papa Roach, the success of Infest, sticking to their own path musically, mental health and more.
Tickets from www.destroyalllines.com


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Interview by Kris Peters
Perth based melodic death metal outfit VANTA returned with their debut full length album Perpetual Selection on March 13, a cinematic andconcept driven record that explores humanity’s darker instincts through the lens of cosmic horror, mythology and dystopian sci-fi.
Perpetual Selection is a sonic and visual journey inspired by Indonesian dark folklore and survival horror games to the brutal sci-fi landscapes of Dune and Warhammer 40K, transforming real world anxieties into symbolic narratives of monsters, collapse and rebirth. At its core, the album honours melodeath roots by fusing the aggression and heaviness of modern american death metal with the folkiness and melodic sway of early euro death metal.
The band literally ‘breaks down’ trauma, inner collapse and humanity’s obsession with forces it barely understands in songs like Stillwater and Sacred Light. VANTA’s creativity and experimentation in different extreme sub-genres can be heard throughout this album and is a bold statement that the pack are not afraid to push the boundaries and even make some of you...uncomfortable. As well as their sound, their art, lyrics and their symbolic music videos such as Kuyang, Empty Shells and Alchemy mirror the reality that is currently unfolding before us.
HEAVY spoke with drummer Ferdi to find out more, asking him to dive deeper into the musical side of the album.
"We want to explore the darker side of humanity and just where we're heading in general," he began. "Like you see all the things unfolding before our eyes and just around us. Compared to our Gravemind era, we sort of like touched on that more traditional Euro mellodeath sound. Like the Gothenburg riffs, the kind of early Children Of Bodum sound, and a mix with Dahlia nuance.
But with this album - because we wanted to explore more into the whole narrative about collapse and rebirth and just where the society is heading in general, we wanted something more extreme, more aggressive. And the three of us all love black metal very much. We love the early Dimmu Borgir gear, the Belphegor sort of sound, and the early Behemoth riffs. But all in all, the core sound is still MelloDeath and just blending it in more with modern influences, I would say."


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