Ballarat's Anticline release new single, 'Headspinning Bias'

A new one from the Ballarat youngsters, Anticline. 

When you think about heavy music and the small rural Victorian city of Ballarat, you probably think about the progressive tech-metal works from that of Ebonivory. So you should; they're a good, youngish Australian metal band with a lot of musical chops, cool songs, and a truck-load of promise. Yet for hardcore and metalcore, there's another budding young group from Ballarat, Anticline.

If that name sounds familiar, that's because some locals reading may have caught the local act opening up for Greyscale Records 2019 showcase gig at the Corner Hotel (hey, remember live shows?), whereas others may remember former Honest Crooks vocalist, Jerry Chard, guesting on this band's previous single, 'Airless Room,' from 2019. Produced by Jamie Marinos, and with artwork from Iron Mind's Sam Octigan - who also created the artwork for Misery Signals' upcoming 'Ultraviolet' LP - 'Headspinning Bias' will get all of the mosh-loving jabronis to spin-kick in self-isolation, and it'll get everyone else with the emotional intelligence of an actual adult to nod their heads accordingly to some angst-riddled, angry-as-shit new-age hardcore.

If you've read KYS for any lengthy period of time, you'll know that I can absolutely be biased towards a lot of hardcore and metalcore. Meaning that I just don't like or care for a lot of them. For any given band or single you may see written about here, there's ten or so more that I just ignore and pass on. As my inbox gets hit on the weekly - daily, even - regarding bands that may often sound more or less the same, from all around the world. Ergo, I don't care if a band is from my own country or my home state, let alone if they're doing "cool things" for X genre or Y sub-genre. As I bet you I can find a very similar-sounding group from the other side of the world in no time flat.

In that sense, Anticline really are no different than many other bands within the Australian and international hardcore and heavy music scene. You've heard this type of heaviness before, I assure you: Justice For The Damned, Daybreak, Void Of Vision, Cursed Earth, Honest Crooks, etc. Yet they make up for over-familiarity that with a hell of a lot of energy. With plenty of bite, gusto, heart - you get the point. They're a bunch of young dudes having a crack at it, and I can't necessarily fault them for that. Because with primal urgency, saturated metal guitar riffs, discernible bass lines, a highly mean-sounding pit-section kicking in at 1:58, and a drummer repping Full Of Hell in the below video (mad respect), 'Headspinning Bias' ain't half bad.

Sure, you could do better, but you could also a lot worse too. Check your biases below and keep an aye on Anticline in 2020: