New Zealand Music Month: Cheers, and the final dozen

Black Metal Jun 01, 2015

It’s New Zealand Music Month this May. New Zealand’s annual celebration of homegrown music. Generally, that involves a lot of mainstream media highlighting a lot of mainstream acts. So I’m here to try and redress the balance a bit. I’ll be posting a link to some rowdy New Zealand music for you to check out every day over the next month. Some bands will no doubt be familiar; others I hope will be fresh to your ears.

Welcome to the final post in this New Zealand Music Month series.

Over the last month, I’ve been highlighting as many great New Zealand-based metal, punk, and heavy rock bands as I can. And every one of the bands I’ve mentioned is a group that I’ve either enjoyed live, or on record, or both.

I realise that some of the bands I’ve featured over the last month will be very familiar for homegrown fans. But, I figured, if someone from overseas discovers a few Kiwi bands via this series, or if someone from my neck of the woods stumbles upon a new band or two, then my job is done.

Ultimately, this series has been about spreading the word.

However, if you’re thinking, “Where the hell is X or Y band?”, there might be a few reasons for their absence.

First, I restricted myself to highlighting bands that have released recordings. (Albums or EPs that aren’t too hard to find.)

Second, I likely forgot more than a couple of bands along the way. (But I’ll likely catch up with those bands in the future.)

And third, I simply might not enjoy the work of X and/or Y band.

I mean, we’ve all got things that tickle our fancy or stick in our craw. And I’m not interested in listening to vast swathes of New Zealand’s more overtly chart-baiting music. Be it heavy or not.

That said, what I haven’t done over the past month is gripe about the New Zealand bands that I don’t enjoy. Because complaining is not the raison d’être of this blog or Six Noises’ Facebook page.

I’m just here to tell you about the bands I think are worth your time.

Really, it’s a privilege for me to do just that. And I think I’ve managed to shine a light on close to 80 New Zealand bands over the past month. If you checked any of them out, then cheers. That’s very much appreciated.

I realise that a down under, backwoods blog written by an over-the-hill oddity like myself isn’t likely to be anyone’s first port of call. So my thanks go out to you for taking the time to check out Six Noises and my recommendations over the past month.

Cheers also to anyone who mentioned this New Zealand Music Month series on Facebook or Twitter, or elsewhere around the Web.

Below are a few links to other New Zealand metal and punk blogs and Facebook pages you might like to visit. As well as a final dozen metal and punk outfits that I recommend you add to your list of New Zealand bands to check out.

All that’s left to say is, kia ora, kia kaha, and ka kite anō.

Thanks for stopping by. I’ll see you around.

-C

Sites to explore

History of New Zealand Extreme Metal
NZ Metal Forum
NZ Metal.com (Facebook group)
NZ Metal.com (Long list of other NZ metal Facebook groups)
Axiom of the Elite NZMetal ‘Zine
Subcide Zine
The 13th Floor
History of New Zealand Heavy Metal
Up The Punks
Radio Active’s Anger Management Show
Metal Radio.co.nz
Steff Metal
Radio New Zealand’s South of Heaven series