As previously reported, it was speculated that Aussie hardcore label UNFD were concocting a one-off music festival featuring acts on its own lineup, under the mysterious name of ‘Singularity 2013’, but it’s now been revealed what that enigmatic title refers to.
Producing a social media PR stunt on the 4 January which involved the no-give-away posting of a link on their Facebook page to a countdown timer on ‘Singularity‘, UNFD sent fans and media into a speculation frenzy as to what exactly ‘Singularity’ was.
With a number of UNFD bands, such as The Amity Affliction, The Bride, and In Hearts Wake, followed suit, spreading the link via their own Facebook pages, the possibility of a joint project involving some of Australia’s best hardcore and metal acts set alight to ‘UNFD Festival’ theories – a music wet dream for the growing population of Australian metal heads out there.
With the doomsday clock close to striking midnight, it has now been revealed that the mystery of ‘Singularity’ is in fact the title of the forthcoming album of emerging metal band Northlane.
The news was revealed via website Got-Djent, who confirm that the ‘Singularity project’ associated with We Are Unified Records is in fact the name of Northlane’s sophomore album, which is to be released on the 22nd of March this year, inspiring mass anticipation amongst the Aussie hardcore music community.
The huge buzz apparently moved fans to crack the code of tracklistings “via a series of invisible cubes placed around the site earlier this week”, according to the UNFD wesbite, as well as going to great lengths to source details on the LP by infiltrating a binary code used in magazine advertising.
…The possibility of a joint project involving some of Australia’s best hardcore and metal acts set alight to ‘UNFD Festival’ theories
Following on from their 2011 debut Discoveries, Northlane will release their first single “Quantum Flux” from Singularity this Friday on the 22nd February. With the song being described by UNFD as “a testament to their ability to push boundaries wherever they can” this small preview is sure to spread the word about the self-described “Galictcore” Sydney group and their sneaky Singularity shenanigans.
The clock-timer utilised as countdown for the album, coincided nicely with the beginnings of the Soundwave festival which kicks off this Saturday at Brisbane’s RNA Showgrounds, and by effect, further cementing in the minds of fans and the media the possiblity of a UNFD-inspired festival announcement.
With a minute Australian presence in the Soundwave 2013 festival line-up this month (four Aussie bands out of the 73 booked), the establishment of a secondary and localised heavy metal music festival would have addressed the growing demand from punters in the music community.
Soundwave/Harvest Festival head AJ Maddah addressed the developing criticism of low Australian representation, by stating that only “serious” bands would be the pick of the crop for the high-status music festival- inferring that Australian bands had, by a manner of speaking, shat in their own nest by establishing a bad-rep as “cockhead[s]” who “would sneak… people backstage” back in the early days of Soundwave.
Despite, the dashing of ‘UNFD Festival’ hopes, the successful grassroots promotion of Northlane’s Singularity album amongst artists underneath the We Are Unified label, speaks volumes about the cultivated community that Australian heavy music has become. With a growing market aided by labels UNFD and other Staple Group services such as promotions company Destroy All Lines (as Pizza, Bang and Snitch), hardcore in Australia can be easily perceived as thriving in its own alternative format.
Don’t worry hardcore heads: there may not be another Aussie metal festival for now, but Northlane’s Singularity will be something worth looking forward to on the close horizon.
