Review: Joshua Hobbins
Emerging from the depths of Queensland’s burgeoning heavy scene, CROSSFACE’s debut full-length is a filthy, cathartic dive into metallic hardcore, blending grind, sludge, and death-tinged chaos into a 23-minute exorcism. The record is relentless from front to back – the sonic equivalent of a blunt-force trauma, delivered with surgical precision and seething intent and built on sludgy riffs, lurching rhythms, and tortured, raw, throat-shredding vocals. Massive props to audio mastermind Brendan Auld for capturing the essence of how brutal these songs are so perfectly, just as he has done with so many great SE Qld heavy releases over the past few years.
At the centre of the chaos is Matt Budge, whose vocals hit like a pipe to the ribs — blunt, unforgiving, and impossible to ignore. Think early Ringworm filtered through a Queensland storm drain. Budge doesn’t just scream, he commands, delivering each line with ferocity and control. He’s more than ably assisted on the absolute filth of Born to Shit by Mark Boulton from Byron Bay legends Shackles, whose snarling cameo only deepens the track’s already hostile tone. Meanwhile, Candice Bankovacki, of Gold Coast bruisers Crave Death, tears through Distorted Perceptions with a visceral performance that cuts straight through the mix, delivering one of the LP’s most savage and unforgettable moments.
The triple guitar assault of Auld, Matt Gordon, and Mitch Long ensures the sonic density never lets up — layering everything from punishing breakdowns to dive bombs, feedback-drenched chaos, and scorched-earth leads. It’s not just heavy, it’s oppressive in the best possible way.
Holding the entire structure together is the rhythm section of Mitchell Louttit and Kingsley Sugden, and it’s an absolute weapon. Louttit’s bass is thick, gritty, and right up front in the mix, giving the album serious low-end heft. Combined with Sugden’s unrelentingly primal drumming, the two lock down the chaos with the menace of a collapsing dam wall — surging, cracking, and always threatening to blow.
Lyrically, the band dives deep into grief, venom, and raw psychological unrest. Penned with unflinching intent by Louttit, Budge, and Auld, it’s heavy in every sense of the word, with no gimmicks or genre cosplay, just raw, weaponised honesty. These aren’t abstract musings; they’re reflections of real pain: spiralling mental collapse, betrayal, systemic disgust, and a suffocating struggle to endure. From the darkest corners of personal despair to scathing takedowns of performative activism and parasitic entitlement, the lyrics cut deep with zero pretense. It’s heavy music for heavy lives — unfiltered, unflinching, and unmistakably lived-in.
The album closes with a one-two gut punch in Waste Management and Nothing Has Changed, arguably the heaviest cuts on the record. Here, the band leans hard into sludge-soaked, industrial grooves that prove you don’t need to rely on tired dissonant breakdown tropes to be brutal. It’s oppressive, mechanical, and suffocating — the sound of emotional rot set to a jackhammer beat.
Formed in 2022, CROSSFACE have already shared stages with SPEED, END, Kublai Khan, No Warning, Comeback Kid, and Full of Hell — and now with this LP, they’ve planted a flag in the scorched earth of the Australian heavy music scene.
CROSSFACE is violent, honest, and utterly unrelenting.
No trends. No compromise. Just power.
Order here:
https://crossfacehardcore.bandcamp.com/album/crossface
