Northlane is an Australian metalcore band from Sydney, formed in 2009. The band comprises guitarists Jon Deiley and Josh Smith, drummer Nic Pettersen, bassist Brendon Padjasek and vocalist Marcus Bridge. Northlane have released five studio albums: Discoveries (11 November 2011); Singularity (22 March 2013), which reached No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart; Node (24 July 2015), a number one album; Mesmer (24 March 2017) and Alien (2 August 2019). At the ARIA Music Awards of 2015 the group won the Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album category for their album Node. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2017, the band won again with Mesmer.
History
Northlane were formed in 2009 as a metalcore band in Western Sydney by Jon Deiley on lead guitar, Brendan Derby on drums and percussion, Adrian Fitipaldes on lead vocals, Alex Milovic on bass guitar and Josh Smith on rhythm guitar.[1][2] They are named after the 2007 track "North Lane" by British metalcore band, Architects.[1][3] In 2013, Fitipaldes described their formation, "pretty much, through the internet and common interest" where Deiley and Milovic had contacted each other to start song writing.[2] He continued that "once they had the songs down, they started recruiting members."[2]
Their six-track debut extended play, Hollow Existence, was released in January 2010:[2] it was generally well received. Kill Your Stereo's All Shall Perish praised the group's "admirable and mature standard, a vital quality that is rapidly becoming extinct in most up-and-coming Australian bands" and summarised that it is a "Fantastic six track EP that has substantial replay value and will leave you craving more."[4] Mark A of Sputnikmusic felt "One can certainly tell that it is a first try, given the deriative presentation of the music. Breakdowns are incredibly over-utilized on the 6-song EP, punctuated by clean guitars only when they are gearing up for another breakdown."[5] Northlane toured Australia in support and "established a reputation as a tireless live act."[1]
In late 2011, the band signed to the UNFD record label, which released their first studio album, Discoveries, in November that year.[6] It reached the ARIA Albums Chart Top 100, No. 49 on the ARIA Digital Albums chart and No. 1 on the ARIA Hitseekers Albums chart.[6] The album was followed by the Discoveries tour around Australia, and tours supporting August Burns Red and House Vs Hurricane shortly afterwards. Parkway Drive took them on the Sick Summer tour in February 2012.
In September 2012, the band went to Canada on tour with Counterparts and Stray from the Path. At the end of the tour, they settled in New York City to record their new album with Will Putney. In December 2012 the band toured with in arenas with Parkway Drive on their "Atlas" tour in Australia.
In January 2013, the band completed a tour across regional Australia with In Hearts Wake and Endless Heights as supporting acts, in support of their new single "Worldeater". They also played in Adelaide at The Cavern to make up for their missed flight the previous month. In most shows the band leaked a new song titled "Masquerade". Northlane played at the 2013 Soundwave festival and Pushover 2013 alongside other Australian hardcore acts such as Thy Art Is Murder, The Amity Affliction and In Hearts Wake.
A music video for the song "Quantum Flux" from Singularity was released on 22 February 2013. It achieved mainstream success, debuting at #14 on the ARIA Australian Artists Top 20 Singles Chart in the week of 4 March 2013. On 22 March 2013, Northlane released their second studio album, Singularity, which debuted at No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart.[7] It went to #1 in the Australian iTunes albums chart. Singularity received critical acclaim around the world. It was nominated for Triple J's "J Award Album of the Year" as one of the 10 best albums of 2013, and was voted as the Best album of 2013 on both The Racket and Short Fast Loud. In the Blunt Magazine readers poll, Northlane took home a multitude of awards in 2013 including "Band of the Year", "Album of the Year" and "Best Vocalist". iTunes Australia nominated Singularity as one of the most notable albums of 2013.
The Singularity tour in Australia included Structures, Stray from the Path and Statues. In August they supported Karnivool around Australia.
Northlane made their United States touring debut in November 2013, touring nationally with Veil of Maya and Structures. In January 2014, they played on the Big Day Out touring festival, before touring the US with Bring Me the Horizon, Of Mice & Men and Issues on the American Dream tour. In March and April they supported Architects on a 39 date tour of Europe and the UK. Northlane announced that they would curate their own festival called FREE YOUR MIND, with the first tour taking place in May 2014 in Australia. Northlane headlined the festival with support from Thy Art Is Murder, Veil of Maya, Volumes and Make Them Suffer. All dates on the tour sold out in advance. Northlane appeared on the cover of Blunt Magazine in the April edition prior to Free Your Mind. It was after this tour that Northlane became activists and heavily supported many charities including The Smith Family by donating used drums sticks and guitars.[8]
It was announced in September 2014 that founding vocalist Adrian Fitipaldes would be leaving the band. Northlane issued a statement via their Facebook page, citing an impact on Fitipaldes' health as the catalyst.[9][10][11] Northlane also announced that they will be accepting audition videos for a new vocalist.[12][13][14][15]
On 14 October, Northlane announced that they had found their new vocalist.[16] Two days later, they announced that they were shooting a music video together for a new song, titled "Rot". The track was recorded with producer Will Putney in Sydney shortly after being written.[17] Describing the new single as "one of the heaviest Northlane tracks ever", the band released the song on 20 November and the new vocalist was identified as Marcus Bridge.[18][19]
Their third studio album, Node, was released on 24 July 2015, with Will Putney producing, which reached No. 1.[7][20] Smith stated that Node features "a lot more ambience and rhythm section driven stuff"[21] as well as "more depth and dynamics"[22] and possibly more clean vocals.[23] Additionally, in 2015, the band hopes to perform in New Zealand,[24] South East Asia,[25] Portugal[26] and, in the summer, Germany.[27] They also hope to do a headline tour of the UK[28] some time after playing Download Festival there.[29] At the ARIA Music Awards of 2015 Node won the Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album category.[30]
On 19 April 2016, the band announced that they had been working on a collaborative release with In Hearts Wake entitled Equinox. It was recorded in secret that January in Melbourne with producer Will Putney.[31] The EP features three songs: "Refuge", "Equinox" and "Hologram" and was released on 20 April, through UNFD. To promote the EP, Northlane and In Hearts Wake co-headlined a tour in June.[32] Supporting them were Hands Like Houses and Ocean Grove.[33] From 23 April–7 May, Northlane played performed at Impericon Festival 2016 in Oberhausen, Germany.[34]
Since early 2016, the band's live show and costumes have evolved. Jon has worn an array of masks, including an anti-pollution mask, a black medical mask and a rhinestone covered mask which conceals his entire head, plus a pair of large black contact lenses. Alex wears a long wrap-around jacket he acquired while in Japan. Nic wears a black singlet and medical mask. Josh wears a white long sleeve and Marcus wears a moth eaten black t-shirt with bandages on his hands.
The band premiered a new track "Intuition" at Unify Gathering in January 2017, which was eventually released on 17 January 2017.[35] Northlane announced an Australian tour in support of the single in March 2017.[36]
On 10 March, Northlane released a single "Mesmer", an ambient electronic track with an accompanying music video which was shot by Jason Eshraghian in Sydney and contains artistic shots of the band and scenic views.[37] Along with this, a chatbot appeared on Northlane's Facebook page: called "Citizen", people could interact with the chatbot on Facebook Messenger where the bot would give cryptic messages and clues to upcoming releases.
On 16 March, all of Northlane's social media profile pictures turned white, and led fans to an easter egg website, nl6633.com via small text in the white images.[38] This website contained a landing page which showed timelapsed videos of members of Northlane in a recording studio, however no additional information was given.
Two months after "Intuition" was released, another single, titled "Citizen", was released, on 20 March.[39] On 24 March, Northlane released their fourth studio album Mesmer without any prior warning, and the album was made available for immediate purchase and streaming.[40] The aforementioned single "Mesmer" was discovered to be an album sampler/trailer, containing stems to all of the tracks on the album. Additional details about the album's release were given by Northlane's record label UNFD, revealing that clues about the album had been released as early as 2016, and the release date was hidden in the band's Facebook cover image.[41]
Mesmer debuted at #3 on the ARIA Charts, the third Northlane release in a row to debut in the top 5 in Australia.
On 1 June, Northlane took part in a Twitter Blueroom session, where their new music video for "Solar" was premiered.[42] The music video was released shortly before the band began their Mesmer World Tour, with the first leg featuring performances on the main stage at Download Festival, several other European festivals, as well as tours in Canada and South America. Northlane have also announced additional tours in Australia and Europe for 2017.
On 5 July 2018, it was discovered that hidden on the bands poster for their Summer Europe 2018 tour was a date set for 13 July 2018 along with the word "Vultures"[43] then on that date the band dropped their new song entitled "Vultures" which was a standalone song; but will appear on the bands forthcoming album in 2019. It was also reported that rhythm guitarist Josh Smith had taken over as manager for the band.
On 6 September, the band announced that bassist Alex Milovic would be leaving the band due to personal reasons.[44]
On 2 November, former Structures guitarist and vocalist Brendon Padjasek has been confirmed on taking over bass duties as well as additional vocals for the band.[45] A month later, Padjasek would later join the band playing at the inaugural Good Things festival, where the band unveiled a new song titled "Talking Heads" that was later confirmed to appear on their fifth studio album in 2019.[46]
On 30 December, the band confirmed via their Twitter that they were finishing writing their fifth studio album.[47] On 7 January 2019, they commenced recording the new album.[48] On 9 February, Northlane tweeted a video with small text reading "Rift" in it, which is the name of one of the tracks on the album.[49] A day later, they confirmed they had finished recording the album.[50] On 5 April, Northlane featured on PhaseOne's single "Crash & Burn", later included in his debut album Transcendency.[51]
On 12 April, the band released a leak of the album, showing its title, release date, artwork and tracklist. Their upcoming fifth album titled Alien is set for release on 2 August 2019. A few days later, the band released another leak, suggesting that they are planning to release three more singles: "Bloodline" on 30 April, "Talking Heads" on 13 June and "Eclipse" on 25 July.
On 30 April, the band released their first single and music video for "Bloodline" which was based upon frontman Marcus Bridge's violent upbringing. The band also stated their new album will be their most personal to date. A world tour was also announced on the back of their new album Alien.[52]
On 3 June, the band announced that their second single "Talking Heads" will be released much earlier than the assumed release date.[53] A few days later, the label released a teaser of the single with an official release date on 5 June. Along with the release of the single, the band announced a new show for their National Tour for Melbourne after the first one completely sold out. VIP tickets were also announced, where fans could upgrade their standard tickets for VIP ones.[54]
On 29 July, the band released their third single "Eclipse", which was originally scheduled for release much more earlier than the current release date. The single was released along with an accompanying music video.[55] The album was then released on the set date, and a week later peaked at No. 3 on the ARIA Charts.[56]
Musical style
Northlane's musical style has been described as metalcore[57] and progressive metal.[58]
According to Smith, Deiley writes most of the band's guitar/bass tracks,[24] and "before he left, [vocalist] Adrian [Fitipaldes] was writing most of the lyrics. Now it's [Smith] and [vocalist] Marcus [Bridge] for the most part."[59]
Tuning
Northlane use have used a variety of tunings, all utilising baritone 7 string guitars (with their first record an exception to this, as the album was tracked with a 6 string baritone). On a number of songs found on the albums since Singularity, the guitars are tuned to F-Bb-F-Bb-Eb-G-C, essentially drop Bb (a tuning which they used on their debut EP) with a low F.[60] This allows them to use a standard drop tuning with access to a lower string for heavier sections. Alex Milovic similarly uses a Dingwall bass guitar tuned F-Bb-F-Bb-Eb (an octave below the five lowest strings of the guitar). They have also used drop G# (G#-D#-G#-C#-F-A#-D#) in select songs over all of their releases. For "Obelisk" and "Node" (off of their aforementioned album Node), they use a capo in addition to their open F tuning, on the 1st fret (Node) and 3rd fret (Obelisk).
Members
Discography
Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. Northlane has won 2 awards from 2 nominations.
The AIR Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. The AIR Charts differ from the ARIA Charts because they focus on Australian artists represented only by Australian independent labels. Northlane has been nominated once.