25 - Pioneers and Provocateurs

Summary

Australian metal music is notably diverse. Although the country’s metal output is proportionate to its population size, many trend-challenging and genre-defining bands have emerged from this community. These bands – indeed all Australian metal bands – have forged their careers in constant negotiation with their distance from international scenic hubs and from one another. This negotiation, in its varied forms, has imprinted on the musical and paramusical texts of many Australian metal artists, many of whom have responded with defiant and convention-challenging practice. This chapter, within a cursory overview of Australian metal music history, explores the work of three such bands: Buffalo, a proto-heavy metal band from the late 1960s; Sadistik Exekution, a death metal band formed in the mid−1980s; and Ne Obliviscaris, a progressive extreme metal band that has been mainstay of Australian metal since the early 2000s. These three bands are demonstrative of the variability and inventiveness of Australian metal. They also exemplify the way answers to these common distance-related pressures, negotiated through obstinate artistic vision and culturally shaped ideals, can result in inimitable music and art.