Texan purveyors of rap metal and hardcore, UNITYTX, have been turning heads for over a decade now, with their innovative sonic stylings repeatedly defying expectations since first forming in 2014. Fusing high-octane aggression and melody with their 2023 debut album, FERALITY, UNITYTX also released a horde of new material earlier this year, adding some industrial swagger and EDM hues with tracks like BURNOUT and MASTICATE, alongside performing at the likes of Furnace Fest and Louder Than Life.
The band will be hitting the road down under next month to support Alt metal legends VOID OF VISION on their final ever Australian tour alongside GIDEON (USA) and KNOSIS (JPN).
UNITYTX frontmanShaolin G dropped by to share his favourite songs to play live and give some insight into the UnityTX Live Experience!
A lot of times over the years, we usually do RUCKUS then go straight into CROSS ME, and it’s very high energy. It gives so much attitude, and those two are great together.
Obviously WORLD OF MALICE is super sick, I love playing that one. And I love playing ROC SH!T, that one’s always great – but it’s such a mouthful! I’m literally rapping the entire time from beginning to end. So live, mentally I’m like: ok, I just have to treat this like it’s the biggest rap festival. And I’m like: everyone just go crazy, I’m gonna throw water on everybody, I wanna jump in the crowd. It’s a celebration like we’ve just won the Super Bowl. ROC SH!T is one of those big, insanely serotonin-boosted kinds of songs.
I also love playing DIAMOND DIEZ because I love playing stuff for the girlies, let the girlies have their time! They can hop out in the pit and they can dance, they can mosh, then can twerk – they can do whatever they want! I’ve seen everything with that song and a lot of our songs in general. It’s crazy to say that on the last headline tour that we did, when we were playing our set, it was during ROC SH!T actually, and a fight broke out. And we were like: oh shit, there’s a fight! But then we looked to the right, and there were just girls throwing ass nonstop. But that’s what I love about playing our music live, it brings out this feral beast in everybody that they don’t normally feel with other music. With us, girls have said to us: when I hear DIAMOND DIEZ, I just can’t help but dance. And I’ve seen girls dance to it with some Broadway, fully choreographed sort of stuff. And we love it, do your thing!
We’ve been doing this whole DJ thing for a long time, so that’s helped me a lot with managing chaos. When you’re a DJ, people come over, and they’re like, “do you take requests?” or some drunk guy or drunk girl will come up and be all in your space. And we also grew up with hardcore shows, so we’re used to all of it, and we’ll always be expecting a Unity show environment to be the most feral thing possible. I want it to be that because I want people to truly have unadulterated fun. Go crazy, and the music will be over when it’s over. Until then – get the fuck up and start grooving, that’s what it’s all about!
Back in the day when we were a smaller band, we were more tied into the hardcore scene, at least in our local state. We had a lot of hard moshers, and the girls would mosh and beat ass too. But it wasn’t to the point where it is now where girls will be like: I’m going to do bad bitch shit while their music is playing. That’s the biggest difference we’ve seen over the past five years. And I love that! I love the fact that we are more than just a metal band. I don’t think the word enigma is necessarily the right word, but this is my whole entire personality, mind, body and soul put into this music. So when people truly reciprocate that energy and that love, and feel that freedom to the point that they can just dance around…it makes me, who is jumping 10 feet in the air and just dancing like Michael Jackson on stage, feel completely content with the fact that I’m just over here going ape shit; and everyone else is going wild and all out too. It’s crazy fun, but I also can’t wait until the day when we’re actually an international headlining band. I just want to see what our full fanbase can do all together. We’ve only gotten probably 20% at a lot of shows, doing a lot of these opening slots where people can’t come to see us play because it’s too early, or whatever it may be. But it’s coming, and I’m not nervous about it whatsoever. I’m excited!
I can’t express the cathartic feeling of knowing that I’m going to be over in Australia and playing there in February. Five years ago we’d just caught wind over there because I became friends with a couple of bands over there, we did a tour with a band who was from Australia. They went back home and started to spread the word about us, and I was so stoked on that and seeing how many people found us there because of that. I still stream now, but I used to stream a lot late at night, and a lot of people from Australia would come onto my stream because of the time difference, and be like: I just found you guys, RUCKUS is bad ass! And they would sit there and watch me, and just be like: when are you guys coming to Australia, when are you guys coming to Australia? At the time the world was in lockdown, but now finally this year – it’s happening!
Destroy All Lines & Open Door Management Present
VOID OF VISION
WHAT I’LL LEAVE BEHIND
AUSTRALIAN HEADLINE TOUR 2025
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS
GIDEON (USA) + UNITYTX (USA) + KNOSIS (JPN)
TOUR DATES:
FRIDAY 14 FEBRUARY – THE TIVOLI, BRISBANE (LIC AA)
SATURDAY 15 FEBRUARY – HAMILTON STATION, NEWCASTLE (18+)
SUNDAY 16 FEBRUARY – MANNING BAR, SYDNEY (18+)
WEDNESDAY 19 FEBRUARY – UC HUB, CANBERRA (18+)
THURSDAY 20 FEBRUARY – NORTHCOTE THEATRE, MELBOURNE (LIC AA)
FRIDAY 21 FEBRUARY – THE GOV, ADELAIDE (LIC AA)
SATURDAY 22 FEBRUARY – MAGNET HOUSE, PERTH (18+)
Tickets from destroyalllines.com
