HARD NOISE: UNDERMINER // Raising The Flag For North

Sydney’s Northern Beaches are known for a lot of great things – good food, iconic landmarks, beautiful beaches and views, but you wouldn’t typically associate the “insular-peninsular” with head banging rock music. Local band UNDERMINER is changing all that with the upcoming release of their new single, Hate Grips, and accompanying music video.

Made up of Lachlan Woods (vocals), Brodie Graham (guitar), Geordie Smith (guitar), Adam Holmes (drums) and Yanni Tastzidis (bass), UNDERMINER have been creating mosh pit anthems since 2015. They released their first EP Humanity in 2016 and have been building up their musical reputation and profile within the scene ever since.
Drawing inspiration from other local musicians, namely fellow Sydneysiders Shinto Katana, UNDERMINER labels themselves as a solid moshing band who want to be known for killer riffs and powerful lyrics.

The group has played most of New South Wales as well as some stints in Queensland and Canberra, playing gigs and interstate weekenders with other up-and-coming bands Xile, Falcifer, and Apate to name a few.

So far 2017 has seen the release of one single, Incarcerate, but this one is a big jump from where they were at the beginning of the year.

“Our older stuff, we definitely recycled music from the members’ other earlier bands. Whereas now our new songs are written with a completely different process and are structured better, I feel anyway.”

With structuring a song, comes the underlying message you want to convey, and the message of Hate Grips is a very powerful one.

“The song is all about how humans aren’t born with hatred. It’s about the conditioning of hate, how we learn to hate and what that does to ourselves personally and the overall cycle of hate in this world. It’s not just a random heavy-mosh song, it’s got a hell of a lot of meaning.”

Hate Grips premiered for the first time on triple j’s short.fast.loud on Wednesday with the music video posted on the band’s YouTube page shortly after. Working to release a new single with a video at the same time was no small feet, something that Brodie admits wouldn’t have been possible without being surrounded by top talent.

“Jack Rudder did the clip for us and he’s one of the most talented upcoming video photographers at the moment. He just did all the new Justice For The Damned videos and is basically always on tour with either Justice, Cursed Earth, Honest Crooks, and others.”

For more of Jack Rudder’s other works, click here.

With mosh-pit madness the name of UNDERMINER’s game, we’re looking forward to seeing what else the young musicians will bring to the local music scene table.