Western Front

After months of Judging and deliberation and with over 4,000 votes from the general public the Association for the Australian Heavy Metal are pleased to announce the finalists for each category of the 2009 Australian Metal Awards - read on more below for the full list of finalists.

The winners will be announced on the 7th of November at the 2009 Australian Metal Awards Show which will be held at the Forum (Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park, NSW). Tickets are available through www.moshtix.com.au

"HEAVY HQ" will showcase four of Perth’s best metal acts to the younger masses commencing 1pm on Sunday 18th October @ YMCA HQ Leederville.
Currently busy writing and recording their next full-length offering, DYSCORD will surface to headline “Heavy HQ”. Needing no introduction to Australian metal heads, Dyscord have laid waste to audiences around the country several times over and then some. With numerous tours and tasty supports under their belts such as Black Dahlia Murder and Kill Switch Engage, Dyscord will deliver an explosive live performance that’s sure to educate the kids! “Heavy HQ” may well be their last all ages show for quite some time as they get towards the business end of their latest recording, so be sure not to miss them. (www.dyscord.com)

UNDER THE INFLUENCE are on the cutting edge of Australian metal. There are simply no other acts exploring the same avenues. Mixing influences ranging from Meshuggah to Pantera to Alan Holdsworth, U.T.I create a brand of music accessible to all metal heads old and new. On the verge of signing a national distribution deal for their latest recording "The Brutal Harsh Honest Truth", the lads are keen to impress leading up to it’s release in February 2010. This will be U.T.I’s first gig in front of an all ages crowd. A single from the new album will be available for purchase. (www.uti.com.au)

SIGHT TRANSCEND have been carving a name for themselves since their recent run of launch gigs, releasing their debut recording in the form of an E.P. Be sure to come down early and witness their brand of chunky tech metal. (www.myspace.com/sighttranscend)
All age show regulars ARTURO CHAOS will open the festivities. (www.myspace.com/arturochaos)

For more info check out the gig guide.

Exclusive Competition
Your chance to win CD’s, signed posters & a meet ‘n’ greet with metal giants ARCH ENEMY!!!
Competition running for all shows!!!

ANGELA GOSSOW on the competition: Mates, we are so very bloody positive about coming to Australia again, that we are throwing in some extra goodies for you to win: Lotsa meet 'n 'greet passes, CDs and signed posters! Hells yes. Meeting Arch Enemy in its entirity is an adventure you shouldn't miss ;-)
All you must do is: Buy a ticket for any of the OZ dates and actually drag your corpse to the show. You will also need a little bit of luck - so pray to the Gods Of Rock 'n 'Roll! We are stoked to meet ya either face to face or at the show! Cheers! Angela

For more details and how to enter read on.

Ok, if you're wondering why the forum is currently closed off blame the russkies. There is some search engine based in Russia that was constantly crawling through the forum links and chewing up a heap of bandwidth, database and CPU usage on the hosting server. The hosting company was threatening to suspend the Western Front account if their resources were continued to be eaten up, so I had to turn off the forum for a few days while testing the procedures put in place to block the offending IP addresses.

Hopefully that will solve the problem and I can turn the forum back on and all will be as normal. Thanks for bearing with us while we sort it out. Thankfully the rest of the site has gone relatively untouched and people can still access the gig guide and everything else.