A band who always wanted to make history, Banks Arcade bring passion and potent execution to their myriad of influences and creative ideas. Formed over a shared love of music with a razor-sharp avant-garde aesthetic, the Melbourne-based band Banks Arcade have always teetered on modernity, their gaze ever-fixed just beyond the horizon via their flourishing sonic wiles. From their 2018 debut EP Endnote to its 2020 follow-up Fever Dreams, the group's head-turning singles like Sick and Drown have gone on to amass over 1 million individual streams, while their explosive single Chosen was chosen by Ubisoft as the official theme song of the Rainbow Six Siege Oceanic Nationals in 2022.
Releasing their full-length Future Lovers in 2022, an LP initially devised as a concept album that evolved into a vessel of personal self-discovery, Banks Arcade cemented their future-facing trademark style while also turning heads courtesy of their emphatic soundscapes, searing metal and hip-hop additions.
The band recently announced the new EP, DEATH 2 due out on Friday 2 February 2024 via UNFD. Following on from previous singles Worship The Internet and Change, both also set to feature on DEATH 2, More Want is a corrosive neon eruption, with metalcore, industrial and modern elements pummeling around an electronic, rave-ready bridge. DEATH 2 doesn't simply build on the previously-established Banks Arcade trademark sound; rather, it catapults the band's heady blend of hard rock, electronic and metal into an entirely new sonic stratosphere, with six tracks lying in wait to dazzle in 2024.
Fresh off the back of releasing DEATH 2 next February, Banks Arcade will support. To celebrate the announcement of DEATH 2 and to highlight the fact that fresh off the back of it, the band will be heading out on the road with Northlane on their 'The Dante Tour' Australian tour with ERRA and Landmvrks we caught up with vocalist/guitarist Joshua O’Donnell who shared with us his five favourite Northlane songs.
My 5 Favourite Northlane Songs with Banks Arcade's Joshua O'Donnell
Transcending Dimensions (2011)
Transcending Dimensions is almost like the transition into Northlane finding what Singularity was, in my opinion. It still has traces of the punk/hardcore/metalcore tropes that you hear in a lot of the early 2000s genres, but it also has that flicker of what's to come in Singularity, you could hear them experimenting with these more atmospheric sounds and these longer drawn out syncopated breaks, and pulling references from Karnivool and Tool and things that I'm sure that they would've been listening to at the time. And I think that’s awesome because I probably got into Discoveries after Singularity, but I had listened to all of that early metalcore stuff - and when I heard Transcending Dimensions, it had that familiar sound also mixed with the Northlane sound that I love.
Dream Awake (2013)
This was probably the song that got me into this style of music specifically. I think when Northlane wrote Singularity, this kind of fucking intergalactic sound hadn't existed in that sense. And the crazy production and lyrical content struck everyone at that time, it changed the way that people make music. It just has those big moments and that kind of signature Northlane sound that you hear across that album.
Weightless (2015)
I loved Node, it was this shift and I thought it was cool how the band landed on their feet after losing a vocalist. There were a lot of people who weren't stoked about that. But I think that with Weightless, Marcus [Bridge] proved that he belonged in the band and I feel like it had the same grandiosity and atmosphere that I loved from the earlier albums; but in a different way. It was a lot more vocal-driven and dry and sounded almost like more of a rock band doing the same Northlane sound but in a bit more subdued way. And I liked that. If I had to pick one favourite Northlane song, this would be very close to the one that I would pick.
Details Matter (2019)
Details Matter I think is a good example of all of the heaviest shit that I love from Northlane. The first time I ever had a cage fight, I walked out to Details Matter, right after it came out. And it was full dopamine going out there and hearing that song. It is just punishing.
Obsidian (2022)
I think Obsidian is just the culmination of all of the new sounds that they started experimenting with on Alien, combined with the sort of song structure from Singularity. It’s almost like Dream Awake but with all of the Alien sound design. And I liked that. I didn't gel with a huge amount of the album, but that song in particular kind of took me back to the old Northlane that I loved, but with a new and improved sound and better sonics.
DEATH 2 (out February 2, 2024 via UNFD)
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