No Apologies – Life
Between anniversary tours from Parkway Drive and I Killed the Prom Queen, Day of Contempt reforming, 50 Lions dropping a new track and now this album, I think it’s safe to say we’re currently at the peak of the Australian hard/metalcore nostalgia revival.* …and I am absolutely here for it!
For those not in the know, No Apologies are a respected Sydney hardcore band who are perhaps best known for the guest feature on “Dead Man’s Chest” from Parkway Drive’s Horizons (2007), and who last left us that same year—almost twenty years ago now—with their outstanding Survival album.** It was also their only album for all that time, and—even though they departed the scene atop a wave of admiration and momentum, I’m pretty surprised to see their name popping up again in 2025.
Life picks up more or less where Survival left off. The tautologically titled “Womb Birth” kicks things off with a killer thrash riff that sounds rather reminiscent of that album’s standout track “Dying to Live”.*** Likewise, the video for the title-track (below) tells you about all you need to know about the rest of the record’s content, by featuring a bunch of crusty codgers in Cro-Mags shirts alternatively chillaxing and spitting venom amid a serene coastal setting, while also taking my call for more hardcore guys ripping sick solos atop likely un-permitted natural formations to heart.
And that’s about all there is to it. For all of its traumatic theming, Life is a throwback to a simpler time and a simpler sound, with some late guest spots from new scene titans Jem Siow from Speed and Nails' Todd Jones to drive home the defiant dispatch that—no matter the adversity it faces—hardcore never dies. Now throwback and throwdown.
*Still no sign of Carpathian or Her Nightmare though…
**There was also a single song on a split EP in 2010, but nobody counts those.
***Would you believe these guys have a Metal Archives page while BTBAM, Slipknot and even Parkway Drive themselves still don’t?
Nicolas Cage Fighter – I Watched You Burn
Looking toward the new-school now, Ballarat’s Nicolas Cage Fighter have been turning heads since their inception in 2021. So far, the attention they've received has had more to do with their meme-y moniker than the quality of their brutality. However, this second full-length outing proves the band are far more than just a punny name.
I Watched You Burn is a huge step up from everything else Nicolas Cage Fighter have released. Sure, it sounds a lot like Australia's most discussion-dominating Australian deathcore act, Thy Art is Murder, but it is also a lot better than their last album as well, meaning this newfound derivation is more than made up for by their quality. Indeed, vocalist Justin Ellis has a lot more presence and range than current TAIM vocalist Tyler Miller (ex-Aversions Crown) and might make a good future frontman, if that band ever find themselves needing one again. Then again, he might be better off sticking with Nicolas Cage Fighter at this point.
While I Watched You Burn might seem generic from first blush, it's a much more engaging and dynamic record than you might expect. The band know how and when to vary the pace in order to both capitalise on all the potential energy they've built up and prevent things from even getting too overwhelming or one-dimensional. There are also a few pig squeals and subhuman gutturals that perhaps betray the infernal influence of Lorna Shore's Will Ramos, although, again, these are used sparingly and balanced out by the kind of vocal hooks and mosh calls TAIM made a mastery of. Most notable is "The Executioner" which seems to be coming for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Hollywood wages with its opening cry of "Heads will roll!" but there are plenty of other moments spliced in along the way as well to keep things interesting.
As well rounded as Nicolas Cage Fighter's overall sound has become, I Watched You Burn itself could still perhaps use a bit of editing. It probably could and should have ended two tracks earlier with "Legacies of Dust", which ends on a colossal, stomping breakdown that renders what follows both redundant and anticlimactic. "Existing Beyond Death" is good, but it also sounds a lot like a rehash of I Watched You Burn's opening title-track, making it seem more like you accidentally hit repeat all, rather than continuing the record's impressive momentum, while "Tarnished Remains" is a much more energetic offering ends things in a mournful, melodic, semi-epic mode that may have been better served somewhere toward the album's beginning.
Anticlimactic sequencing quibbles aside, I Watched You Burn leaves little doubt that these guys are the next big thing in Australian deathcore, if not on the global stage. Make sure to check it out when it drops next week—especially if you liked that new Psycho-Frame album (or the EP I'm about to talk about).
Aversions Crown – A Voice from the Outer Dark
Sometimes three songs are all you need. Brisbane's Aversions Crown split the difference, having hit the Australian hardcore/metal scene around 2009, and grown into one of the countries leading deathcore acts over the past decade an a half. During that time they've gone fro one of the blandest bands I've ever seen or heard to a solid contender for the country's second most significant deathcore export (depending on whether count or credit Alpha Wolf). Yet, while they've become much more popular and credible over the last decade, I still don't think they've ever put out anything quite as good as their second album Tyrant from 2014. Sure Xenocide (2017) and Hell Will Come for Us All (2020) were solid and much more technically adventurous offerings, that really helped put them on the map, but neither has left a particularly lasting impression on yours truly, and have come to be regarded as solid, if not particularly memorable events amid the endless onslaught of other deathcore records released during the same period, and I'll admit that the only time I really remember they exist is whenever the band have a new release on the way.
A Voice from the Outer Dark, is immediately more memorable, both by virtue of its truncated track-length and also because the three songs it has on offer are easily the best thing the band have put their grammatically challenged name to. The title-track starts things off by invoking Archspire's scattershot vocal delivery, before delving into a more brutal death metal palette that more readily recalls mid-period Decapitated, while also employing the atmospheric calling cards that made Tyrant relatively pop, paired with a chorus that invokes Evangelion/Demigod-era Behemoth. "Deathbed Lamentations" continues that blackened death metal trend that again appears to be chasing the bar set by Will Ramos, via some strained guttural sections, but remains a lot more fun and dynamic than anything I've heard from the new (or even most of the old) Lorna Shore album(s).
The start of "Castigation Choir" sounds very similar to the first song, but—like this review—splits the difference between the previous two by bringing in some blackened atmosphere and brutal technicality, along with a final, atmospheric section that sounds a lot like Alpha Wolf's "Bleed 4 You" and gives way to a massive, djentrified beatdown at the end, as though Vildhjarta just burst in like the Kool-Aid Man. Although it starts perhaps a bit too similarly to A Voice from the Outer Dark's the title-track, the EP's three-song setting ensures it still stands out while also putting the rest of the band's back catalogue to shame.
Over a decade and a half into their turbulent career, Aversions Crown seem to have fullyy hit their stride. Ex-Black Tongue Vocalist Alex Teyen, who joined Aversions Crown last year, seems to be a particularly good fit for the band, with all the other members held over from the Tyrant-era and before. Hopefully his heightened presence can carry forward, along with the improved songwriting on display here, and prove once and for all that Aversions Crown are more than just a training ground for future Thy Art is Murder members.