A new EP that I've been listening to a lot at No Echo HQ is Dizdain's I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive. Released at the end of October, it's the follow-up to the Melbourne, Australia band's 2024 demo and recent singles.
"When we were coming out of Covid in 2022, Nathan and Alex were looking to do something new, both agreeing that a heavier band was on the cards," Dizdain vocalist Zac Vinko wrote me after I emailed the band to learn about their story so far. He had just gotten back from a run of shows Down Under with New York's Combust. "It took a little while to come together but they were adamant that I was going to be their singer. Initially, the plan was a more metallic sound but over time the direction of sound has taken a side step for the better."
Staying on the subject of stylistic direction, here's what Zac said about Dizdain's sound: "For this EP specifically, there was an emphasis on doing something more direct and emotionally vulnerable — frustration towards feeling taken advantage of, grieving the loss of loved ones, personal mental health struggles and the monotony surrounding each day where waking up is more of an effort than it is meant to be.
"Our sound definitely borrows some elements from Cold as Life — I especially take a lot from them for my vocal delivery and sound — Everybody Gets Hurt, Sheer Terror, '90s hardcore of that ilk is something we also take from musically. And modern bands like King Nine also influence us socially."
I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive was released by Last Ride Records, the Aussie label known for such bands as SPEED, 50 Lions, and Iron Mind. "Maddo [label owner Tom Maddocks] is one of our close friends from Sydney, we’ve known him for years after travelling to shows and through other mutual friends we’ve made along the way.
"Just like our demo was released through Burning Hammer Records — who are putting out and putting on for so many bands new and old — we reached out and asked if he’d be interested. And everyone mentioned above has had a massive impact not only on their cities respective scenes but across the country also."
Outside of Parkway Drive and the aforementioned SPEED, it feels like American audiences don't know as much as they should about Australian hardcore bands. I asked Zac how he saw that from his perspective. "After travelling to America over the last couple years, it’s evident that really outside of the bands you’ve mentioned, the only other genuine hardcore bands that people are aware of are Primitive Blast and Iron Mind, who came over and toured some time ago now.
"Other than people who have toured Australia with some great bands like Outsiders Code, Relentless (who also toured America), AWOL as well, there’s not much awareness."
Zac offered some more on the Australian Hardcore awareness, or lack of, in the States. "Social media has changed that ever so slightly now but it does seem to get overlooked still, as an Australian band, Threshold have done something incredible for an Australian band having a song released on the latest Streets of Hate comp. But touring and garnering exposure in America is expensive and logistically difficult.
"A visa to tour there is no light expense and the risk doing so without one is a harsh penalty. But that shouldn’t be a deterrent, a small run is feasible, a festival run is feasible but the risk for an American promoter to bring over an Australian band without international exposure or having a record out on an American label is probably too high a risk for them as well.
"We’d love to do it, I want to link with my friends I’ve met through this thing of ours. But having a record out on an American label, people taking a chance and travelling and making friends overseas, overcoming the stigma that it is too hard as an Australian band, taking that risk and doing it, reaching out is something that could change that."
Let's hope that changes sooner than later because Aussie hardcore bands like the ones mentioned above, including Dizdain, deserve more love here in the U.S.
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I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive is available now via Last Ride Records.
Tagged: dizdain
