After the overwhelming success of their inaugural event, UNIFY festival’s second year is set to be just as big and badass as its predecessor. Offering a lineup full of both National and International heavyweights, alternative music fans are set for a weekend of chaotic camping festival fun. With a line-up dripping with more communal music talent than the amount of sweat set to flow from two days worth of moshing, allow me to be your guide to some of the plethoric platter of artists both local and international, well worth being covered in the sweaty gritty festival glow for if you’re making the trek to UNIFY this year.
Stray From The Path
Making the trek from Long Island New York fuelled with politically targeted ferocity, this four-piece are set to take the stages of the festival by storm. With lyrics exuding an unrequited anger to the world around them and a live performance renown for the dense energetic atmosphere (actually, at-mosh-phere) it creates, Stray From The Path are set to revitalise your energy levels after even the longest day smashing tinnies, and re-establish your discontent for the world outside of the serene Tarwin Lower reserve.
Make Them Suffer
Combining ambience with melt-your-face-off brutality which consistently comes to life on a large stage, Make Them Suffer are my next selection for a band which you would be an absolute rookie to miss out on. With the beauty of their keyboard lines combining fluently and effortlessly with their guitar, bass and drums all of which is drawn to a focal point by the vocals live this band never fails to absolutely kill it. Let the melodies of songs such as ‘Let Me In’, ‘Old Souls’ and ‘Blood Moon’ whisk you into their set for an unrivalled, melodic and ambiently dense performance.
Stories
Back for their second year on the line-up equipped with an entire album of new material ready to take life along with crowd favourites from Void, Stories are certain to be one of the highlights of this entire line-up. After releasing what many have dubbed to be one of the best heavy releases of the year doubtlessly, Stories are going to follow it up with a performance to match. As a testament to their hard work and their new reworked sound, their second year playing the festival is sure to showcase their overall growth as a band.
Void Of Vision
However, I have seen Void Of Vision numerous times, the opportunity to see them absolutely kill it on a large scale stage is too good to not be excited for. The energy they can create and bring forward even in the smallest of venues and with less than great turn-outs make me anticipate a bunch from this band who truly appreciate their audiences while working with them symbiotically to produce consistently vigorous sets. From seeing this band dominate in contrasting settings such as hanging from the roof of The Evelyn Hotel, to absolutely ripping it up in a little rural pub in Swan Hill and I am excited to see the opportunity a larger scale festival will bring forth for them.
Columbus
I was absolutely stoked that this band was welcomed onto this year’s lineup, after every failed opportunity to see them play their past Melbourne shows, seeing them come to life at a festival will be an unrivalled experience that I cannot wait for. Channelling a punky nostalgia-infused sound, this emotive punk band from Brisbane are sure to draw crowds in on curiosity and recreate a whole teen movie vibe, with the huge likehood of audiences absolutely sweating ‘Downsides of Being Honest’. If you are a fan of Trophy Eyes, Neck Deep or State Champs, for the sake of you spending $150 dollars on a ticket you certainly should not miss the chance to see this band completely nail it.
