1999
By the middle of the decade, the Australian heavy metal music scene was a well-established underground culture. Small metal labels like Modern Invasion in Melbourne and Warhead Records in Sydney were strong supporters of local acts and both cities had particularly flourishing live metal circuits with established venues for bands to play. The smaller centres also harboured well-developed metal scenes, although Brisbane and particularly Perth were cut off from the growing south-east coast touring circuit by immense distances, for this reason Perth band Epitaph made the relocation to Sydney after being signed to Warhead Records. Nevertheless, Australian metal bands were receiving more media coverage than ever before. As more local releases appeared, more were being added to the playlists of community radio and to 3 Hours of Power, and a second magazine with a metal focus had started to circulate. Hot Metal had become simply HM in the early 90s in order to widen its coverage to include other alternative music styles in the wake of grunge and many metal fans had expressed a belief that the magazine no longer catered to their tastes. An offshoot of Sydney street paper On the Street, Rebel Razor was launched at the Alternative Nation Festival in 1995. Produced on news print at a cheaper cost than HM, Rebel Razor did not cover metal exclusively either but it had a more prominent local focus.
The same year, however, Sydney's live metal scene suffered a series of blows when several venues closed down. The Lewisham Hotel in the inner western suburbs, which as The Haunted Castle had hosted metal gigs up to four nights a week since the early 90s, decided to close its doors to metal bands after a series of vandalism incidents. The other premier venue was the Phoenician Club on Broadway in the inner city, which also hosted regular metal events including shows by international touring acts; the building's history as a live music venue dated back to the early 1970s when groups like AC/DC had played there. On 21 October 1995, however, the club hosted a dance party attended by 15-year-old Anna Wood who died three days later after taking ecstasy there. During the resultant investigation, the Phoenician Club's entertainment license was withdrawn and with the closure of another two venues shortly afterward—including the Cobra Club at the Parramatta Hotel which had been a key venue for every type of band from hair metal to thrash—the live heavy metal scene in Sydney almost came to a standstill. The Lewisham Hotel has since begun hosting metal gigs once more, although not as frequently. The old Phoenician Club building was eventually demolished in 2006 to make way for a residential precinct, and the Parramatta Hotel was similarly removed in 2003 and the site is now part of the enormous Westfield shopping complex.
Regardless of these closures, a steady stream of bands were beginning to develop considerable profiles. Alchemist, who had formed in Canberra in 1987, had finally refined its unique style that comprised elements of death metal, grindcore, surf rock and psychedelia. A track from their second album Lunasphere had been included on one of the 3 Hours of Power compilations and the group played at the 1996 Sydney Big Day Out. In Sydney, the symphonic black metal band Lord Kaos were filling the gap that had been left by the dissolution of Bestial Warlust, and a core group of bands like Mortality, Cryogenic and Segression were proving that there was more to the local scene than just death metal. Death metal was the focus of Brisbane's scene, however, headed by Misery who had formed in 1992 and featuring others like Sakkuth and Killengod. A developing melodic metal/power metal scene led by Hyperion but also including groups like Pegazus, Vanishing Point and Eyefear were starting to appear in the always diverse Melbourne. In Perth, isolation was a serious problem. Both Allegiance and iNFeCTeD, a death metal band that had released two albums on Shock, had self-destructed not long after returning from expensive east coast tours.
As the Sydney live metal scene began to recover with some new venues replacing those lost the year before, Rebel Razor ceased publication after the 24th issue in June 1996. Shortly afterward, Pacific Publications announced that HM was also being shut down. Several HM staff members including editor Jeremy Sheaffe then set up their own publishing house and produced the first issue of Loudmouth magazine in April 1997. By this time, nu metal had begun to have a strong influence over the domestic metal scene, with several of the more established metal acts taking aspects of that sound into their own, or shifting toward it completely. Superheist, a Melbourne group that had formed in the early part of the decade as a grindcore band, had re-invented themselves as a pop-laced nu metal act and before long was one of Shock's major bands with their songs being played on TV shows and added to mainstream compilation albums. Segression had begun to head in the same direction with their second album Fifth of the Fifth and by the time of their third release were well established as a nu metal band. Canberra band Henry's Anger had started out playing a dark alternative metal style similar to Tool but by 1997 they too were exploring a nu metal sound and by 1999 they were on the verge of a major breakthrough when their second album Personality Test was nominated for an ARIA Award in the Best Album Category. Another group was a Messiah from the Gold Coast. Formed in 1997 and with an 11-year old drummer, the band created such a positive vibe that before long they had been signed to Sony and become Sunk Loto, a group who would have a serious mid-level career in the first part of the next decade.
Read more about this topic: Australian Heavy Metal, Mid-90s