Rise of the locals!

Over the years I have been quite unimpressed with the lacklustre state of not only Australian metal, but with Australian indie music as well.

The glory days of the early nineties came and went, and seemingly with it, any hope of excellent songwriting not aimed at the dumbified mainstream. The last few years have seen me hanging onto the remains of my old beloved bands from the glory days who still play every now and then. Their magic has not faded, but in the back of my mind, I have felt worried that I'm starting to live in the past, and this of course isn't a good thing.

In recent times I've discovered some excellent local bands, thanks to friends Mike and Tom: Ne Obliviscaris promises to crush every other Australian Metal band of the last decade effortlessly with their first demo alone (I can't wait to see them live), and Tom's own band, sleepmakeswaves takes a beautiful, spacial and atmospheric trajectory on instrumental post-rock.

Both bands have released only their first demos, yet both promise so much. The oncoming ride of seeing both bands mature is going to be sheer delight to behold, as both exhibit mature songwriting and down to earth approaches in their work.

For these two local bands, 2007 is going to be an extremely exciting year as they both increase gigging and continue to release material. Slowly but surely, each have respective followings building, heralding the promise of great times ahead.