Adelaide metalcore heavyweights Heartline released their heaving new single ‘DELOREAN’ last week.

One of the most promising artists in Australian heavy music, ‘DELOREAN’ builds upon other impressive tracks such as the pounding ‘Crystal Eyes’ and ‘Ex Nihilo’.

It’s an unrelenting listen, packed with intense drumming and propulsive bass lines. Heartline aren’t afraid to throw in some intriguing electronic elements either, with vocalist Luke Taylor’s strong vocal range carrying it all through to its culmination.

“‘DELOREAN’ is about simply searching for a time machine to go back and prevent COVID from ever happening,” the band explains. “This track is just meant to be fun and unite listeners as everyone shares a similar longing to rewrite the last couple of years.”

After previously touring with stellar names like Thy Art Is Murder and Void of Vision, next up for Heartline is supporting Circles around Australia in August and September. The live setting is probably the best place to hear Heartline’s riotous songs at full throttle.

To celebrate the release of ‘DELOREAN’, we caught up with the four-piece as part of our Get To Know series to find out more about their lives and music.

Heartline’s ‘DELOREAN’ is out now.

Love Metal?

Get the latest Metal news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more

For more on this topic, follow the Metal Observer.

YouTube VideoPlay

How did your artist name come about?

As young 18/19-year-olds from the start of 2019 we felt like everything had to hold some meaning. We found the word ‘Heartline’ and got instantly attached to it as it represented “a line on the palm supposed to reflect a person’s emotional state”. It was pretty easy to remember, looked clean, and it ticked the edgy undertone box.

How would you describe your music to your grandma?

Hey, remember 90s synth pop? here’s a bit of that in there but you’ll hate it.

Tell us about a few of your tracks; their titles and what they’re about?

‘Ex Nihilo’: This EP opener is about realising how crazy it is that we even exist. It doesn’t matter what you believe in, humanity simply being here is just a wild thing to deeply think about and once truly contemplated, it really puts everything in life into perspective.

‘Echo’: It’s an uplifting song after quite an emotional journey of music, showing appreciation for the people around us who truly understand who we are. Our loved ones who understand us, understand our struggles and shortcomings yet still love and accept us are the people who make life worth sharing.

“I’ll stay here, amidst this energy” are words from the chorus, just expressing the significance of finding one’s place among the right people.

What do you love about your hometown? 

We aren’t big fans of heavily populated areas, so Adelaide is kind of perfect for us. While we enjoy visiting the bigger cities, we love knowing we can come home to our smaller town. It’s close enough to the east coast for us to be able to stay close and network, but it also has a nice, quieter element!

Career highlight so far?

We’ve had a few surreal show moments across our couple of years as a band, but the most insane one was when we had the amazing opportunity to support Thy Art Is Murder at Adelaide’s Lion Arts Factory in 2019. It was a sold-out show, we were second on the lineup and at the end of our first year as a band, we were pretty damn nervous.

I just remember looking out to the crowd while we were performing ‘Crystal Eyes’, seeing so many hands in the air bopping up and down. That was a really special life moment.

YouTube VideoPlay

Fave non-music hobby?

Luke used to do wakeboarding competitively. His family has a shack along the Murray River so he grew up loving water sports and ended up taking to wakeboarding the most.

He really loved it but after a few seasons it started to take up too much time with competitions and practice that it became difficult to pursue music as well as wakeboarding. He still loves having a ride when he gets the chance though, despite it leaving him too sore to walk the next day!

What’s on your dream rider?

Okay here we go:

  • Fancy things like cheese boards with nice crackers, olives and dips.
  • Things that would usually be too pricey for us to cop, such as nice spirits or
    meals.
  • 196 double lemon cans baby
  • If we play overseas, we’d love anything that would just be completely foreign to our
    Aussie taste buds and heighten our travelling experience.
  • A nice Cab Sav or Tempranillo especially when it’s cold outside, would really make
    us feel at home.

Dream music collaboration?

We’d absolutely love to work with Ecca Vandal. We first heard about her through a feature she had on a Void Of Vision track and her work is killer!

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Still children at heart, still scraping together the money to pay for plug-ins every month while touring the world.

What’s your go-to karaoke song?

‘Bow River’ by Cold Chisel or ‘Detroit Rock City’ by KISS. You’ll hear them in our hire vans during the early hours of the morning as well.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

One time our producer told us not to take everything super seriously and that music is meant to be fun, and honestly that’s something we really needed to hear.

What’s one obsession you have that no one would guess after listening to your music?

While a lot of our music is heavy and emotional, we’re all pretty loopy and love comedy. We have an unhealthy obsession with Aunty Donna and would love to tour with them one day on a bill that would make zero sense!

YouTube VideoPlay

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine