How Speed became Hardcore's global ambassadors
They might not have asked for the title, but in representing the scene they love so much on the world stage, a gang called Speed became the jewel in Hardcore's crown in 2024.
“This award, respectfully, is something we never strived for. We just only go by the metric that is the love and support from our family, our friends, and our scene across Australia,” Jem Siew says from the stage of the Hordern Pavillion in Sydney, at the Aria Awards 2024. “Hardcore is going crazy around the world, there are so many awesome bands.” Perhaps they don’t know it, but in this moment, Speed has become the absolute dearest asset in Hardcore this year.
The band took to the stage to accept the award for Best Hard Rock / Heavy Metal Album, beating out Australian favourites Polaris and Dune Rats to the punch and cementing ONLY ONE MODE, one of the year’s most explosive Hardcore records, in the history books. You don’t have to acknowledge awarding bodies to admit that this is a massive deal and a marker of the band's meteoric rise.
The troupe only kicked into gear with songs to release in 2019 with their demo EP, but since then, they have made waves in alternative music by being the leading band to inject flute solos into breakdowns and bring sincerity and excitement over anything else. Even if you’re not entirely enamoured by the music they make, it’s hard to duck Speed's incredible charm, making it even easier to allow the band to take Hardcore culture to the heights they’re clambering up to.
While the band might have started their career writing tracks with a real fury - lashing out against posers in SHUT IT DOWN and coming after the Australian Government in A Dumb Dog Gets Flogged - the messaging of Speed tracks has morphed. Their signature fury remains intact, but now more than ever, it’s delivered with compassion, and packaged with love for those who will stand with them. Ultimately, it’s anger that fuels the lyrical body of Speed’s work, but the love sold with it, and the band’s excitement to see their fans join their point of view, is the glue that binds it all.
FUCK THE REST
Of course, musical content aside, Speed embodies the Hardcore spirit with sheer excitement for the scene that made them. On the same ARIA stage where the band made history, they shout out Last Ride Records, the label to carry ONLY ONE MODE and a slathering of other Hardcore champions across Australia, adding that if anyone cares about what Speed does, they ought to be paying attention to the bands coming from its roster. It seems they offer this kind of platform at most shows they play, too - their refusal to grow without pulling deserving members of the Hardcore scene with them is unbelievably commendable and sincere down to the last molecule.
When Speed took to the stage to headline the Flatspot Tour in Bristol, the band made a point to shout out the local Bristol scene, urging the audience to pull up for smaller shows in the area. It’s all well and good for any band to make such a statement, but this is Speed we’re talking about, and truly, it feels the most sincere that it ever has coming from Jem Siew’s mouth, even though the gang called Speed lives on the other side of the world. But it felt real. Honest.
Because Speed has taken its admiration of Hardcore at large all over the world, and has fought its corner for their whole careers, it does feel like the band is an authority in the department of representing the locals that make up a Hardcore scene. Speed knows that local scenes are a sum of their parts, which are in turn the parts that make up the global Hardcore world that seems to be taking over right now.
Australian Hardcore is still putting in the grind, with bands like AWOL and Terminal Sleep continuing to rip, but there’s no doubt that a gang called Speed have made it a whole lot easier - and have become the inspiration for a unified Hardcore world. If anyone is going to represent Hardcore to the wider world of Alternative music, it’s hard to be mad that Speed has found itself the frontrunner.
Follow Speed here: Instagram
Listen to ONLY ONE MODE here: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp
Into the Dungeon
Every week at Altopsy, I’d like to take you inside what I’m listening to as I dig around for the best alternative releases about. Take them for a spin and share your thoughts on social media or in the comments! For this week’s pick…
Power Trip - Opening Fire (2008 - 2014)
It’s only recently that I got into Power Trip good and proper, and while Nightmare Logic remains their best work in my books, it’s fascinating how immensely consistent not only the songwriting and technical ability, but the production of their work is as early as 2008. The record compiles several singles and releases to make an album that feels miraculously consistent, ripping and tearing with a wailing drive.
Crossover feels as though it doesn’t have any particular champion, and my theory is that the loss of Riley Gale has left a hole that’s uncomfortable to step into, as it was probably destined to belong to Power Trip at the height of the power that they never got to reach. Opening Fire is a marker of a band that started immensely strong and never got to show us just how far it could climb with such quality songwriting in its corner. At least there’s a body of work of the same quality as Power Trip’s for us to use as a benchmark.
Listen to Opening Fire here: Spotify | Apple Music
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