Superheist
Encyclopedia
Superheist was an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n nu metal
Nu metal
Nu metal is a subgenre of heavy metal. It is a fusion genre which combines elements of heavy metal with other genres, including grunge and hip hop...

 band that attained a significant degree of success with a string of EPs and singles and two full-length albums that charted in the Top 40 before suddenly disbanding in 2004.

Formation and early period

The group was formed in Melbourne in 1993 with a line-up of guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

ist DW Norton, vocalist Roderick McLeod, bassist
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 Adam Donath and Sean Pentecost on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

. The "Apocalypse
Apocalypse demo
Apocalypse demo is a demo by Australian nu metal band Superheist. It is their rarest recording, as well as their earliest and heaviest. Apocalypse was released as a demo to record companies, radio stations, magazines and anyone else who would listen in 1994, a year after the bands coming...

" demo shows them as a grindcore
Grindcore
Grindcore is an extreme genre of music that started in the early- to mid-1980s. It draws inspiration from some of the most abrasive music genres – including death metal, industrial music, noise and the more extreme varieties of hardcore punk....

 band in the Napalm Death
Napalm Death
Napalm Death are a death metal band formed in Birmingham, England in 1981. While none of its original members remain in the group, the lineup of vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway, bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris and drummer Danny Herrera has remained consistent for most of the band's ...

 mould. They went on to feature at the annual Metal for the Brain
Metal for the Brain
Metal for the Brain was Australia's largest heavy metal music festival. The event was held in Canberra annually, usually towards the end of the year, and featured Australian bands almost exclusively...

 festival in 1995 and 1996, losing Pentecost along the way.

Superheist were signed to Melbourne's Shock Records
Shock Records
Shock Records is Australia's largest independent record label. It helps distribute records from overseas records labels such as Epitaph Records, and also for small record labels designed specifically for that band such as Cement Records...

 for release on its subsidiary label Shagpile and recorded the EP "Chrome Matrix
Chrome Matrix
Chrome Matrix is the lesser known debut EP from Australian nu metal band Superheist, released by Cut-Throat / Shock Records in 1997 three years after their first demo , of which two secret songs on the Ep originate from....

" in early 1997 with Aaren Suttil (1974–2006) from Dreadnaught
Dreadnaught (heavy metal band)
Dreadnaught is a heavy metal band from Melbourne, Australia. The group was formed out of the remnants of some Tasmanian bands including Fridge from Launceston who recorded an album in 1994....

 providing drums. This EP showed a stark shift in musical direction from grindcore and toward a clearly commercial, melodic sound styled after the increasingly influential nu metal school. Shortly before its release, Donath was injured in an industrial accident that almost severed his hand. Nevertheless, he was able to remain with the band while they searched for a replacement. Pentecost rejoined and Superheist played some shows on the east coast with Non-Intentional Lifeform, another early Australian nu metal band that was signed to Roadrunner Records
Roadrunner Records
Roadrunner Records is an American record label that concentrates primarily on heavy metal bands. It is currently a subsidiary of Warner Music Group.-History:...

 and was attracting some mainstream interest. Late in the year Donath was replaced by Simon Durrant, from the Adelaide-based industrial death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....

 band In:Extremis. This group had released two EPs, the latter of which, "Hybrid Scarifier", had appeared shortly before the band ended midway through 1997.

Commercial success

Keyboardist
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

 and sampler
Sampler (musical instrument)
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...

 Fetah Sebawi was added to the Superheist line-up in 1998 and the band began recording a series of tracks for their debut album release. The singles "Have Your Way" and "2 Faced" were released during in the year and were followed by the EP "Karma" in early 1999. In the middle of 1999, Superheist toured nationally with Sepultura
Sepultura
Sepultura is a Brazilian heavy metal band from Belo Horizonte, formed in 1984. The band was a major force in the death metal, thrash metal and ultimately groove metal realms during the late 1980s and early 1990s, with their later experiments melding nu metal, hardcore punk and industrial.Sepultura...

 but shortly afterwards Durrant departed, apparently due to musical differences. He returned to Adelaide with plans to reform In:Extremis and eventually reappeared with a short-lived project called Screwface:13.

Durrant's departure coincided with some reshuffling at Shock Records. The Shagpile arm was being discontinued and in spite of Drew Dedman coming in as Durrant's replacement, Superheist had neither the budget nor the time for him to lay new tracks for the CD. As a result, the band was forced to release "8 Miles High
8 Miles High
8 Miles High was meant to be the debut album of Australian nu-metal band Superheist. Due to problems with record company and line-up changes, it was released as an EP instead....

" as an eight-track EP instead of the full-length album as originally planned. The track "Pulse" from this release received significant airplay on the national radio network Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...

 and was later included on the compilation CD Full Metal Racket, an album compiled by Andrew Haug. "Crank The System
Crank The System
"Crank the System" is a single release by Australian nu metal band Superheist from their upcoming album The Prize Recruit.After their first EP, 8 Miles High, later works are more defined in their sound and tone; high energy and more traditional nu metal...

" was the band's first recording with Dedman in the line-up and was also the first of their releases on the new Shock subsidiary Pivotal.

In April 2001, Superheist's first complete full-length album The Prize Recruit
The Prize Recruit
The Prize Recruit is the first full-length album from the Australian band Superheist. It was recorded at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne, Victoria by Superheist and producer Kalju Tonuma and released on 15 April 2001.-Track listing:...

was released and entered the Australian charts in the Top 20. The first single from the album, "Bullet" also went into the Top 40 and a second, "Step Back", attained similar success. Superheist supported Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...

 at his Sydney concert in August and by the end of 2001 they were fast becoming one of the country's more popular emerging bands. However, McLeod was abruptly fired from the band. Joey Biro vocalist for FromtheInside was hired as the replacement and following the Big Day Out
Big Day Out
The Big Day Out is an annual music festival held in several cities in Australia and New Zealand in late January. It started in Sydney in 1992, spread to Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth by 1993, with the Gold Coast and Auckland joining in 1994...

 festival in January 2002, work began on completing a follow-up album to The Prize Recruit.

Preceded by the EP "7 Years" and a semi-acoustic rock ballad "A Dignified Rage", the album Identical Remote Controlled Reactions
Identical Remote Controlled Reactions
Identical Remote Controlled Reactions is the first full Superheist release to feature singer Joey Biro, who proved to be something of the bands savour, but catalyst to their eventual demise. IRCR proved far stronger than previous album The Prize Recruit in song personality and overall weight in sound...

also charted in the Top 20, attracting the band even more attention and cementing them as a major act on the Australian alternative music circuit. The band played all major rock festivals across the summer of 2002 and 2003 but after this Superheist appeared to go quiet. A small amount of touring was done and Superheist was billed as one of the major bands at Metal for the Brain on 20 December. However, in October the band cancelled its appearance amid rumours that Biro had been sacked and Norton had also left or folded Superheist to form a new band with former members of Melbourne grindcore act Damaged
Damaged (band)
Damaged was an Australian deathgrind band from Ballarat in Victoria, Australia, active from 1989 to 2004.-History:The band was formed by drummer Matt "Skitz" Sanders...

. Nothing further was heard from the band until March 2004 when Norton announced through the band's official website that Superheist was no more.

For a band that had started by playing grindcore, Superheist achieved a significant level of success with five singles charting in the Top 40 and both of its albums entering the Top 20 on their week of release. In 2004, a final Superheist album, New, Rare, Live
New, Rare, Live
10 years after its creation, D.W Norton offers mourning Superheist fans one last token of appreciation in the form of New, Rare, Live. The first CD New, Rare is a collection of the last songs Superheist recorded in the autumn of its days, the track The Road being an unofficial single and taking up...

was released by Shock. It contained live and rare recordings and a new track, "The Road", with vocals by Cam Baines of Melbourne band Bodyjar
Bodyjar
Bodyjar were an Australian punk rock/pop punk band based in Melbourne. They began performing under the name Bodyjar in 1994; their previous names included Damnation and Helium.-History:...

.

In October 2007 the bands official myspace
Myspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

 was launched. For most of 2008 there have been off and on rumors of a Superheist reunion, but there has been no official statement from the band to this date.

Walk the Earth

DW Norton, producer and co-owner of Back Beach Studios in Rye, Victoria
Rye, Victoria
Rye is a seaside resort town, approximately 83 km south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia. Its bay beach is popular with swimmers, fishermen, yachtsmen and kitesurfers. Its ocean beach is also popular with surfers...

, set up Faultline Records
Faultline Records
Faultline Entertainment Group also known as Faultline Records is an independent record label based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1998 by ARIA Nominated metal producer dw Norton and begun as a development label...

 in 1998 as a development label. In the middle of 2004, he returned to live music with a new band called Walk the Earth, featuring drummer Matt Sanders and vocalist Jamie Ludbrook from Damaged, guitarist Rich DeSilva from Bison and bass player Sam Johnston of Down.To.Size.. The group released the EP Rampant Calamities on Sydney label Chatterbox Records
Chatterbox Records
Chatterbox Records was an independent record label based in Sydney, Australia, founded in 1997 by musician Nik Tropiano and Sebastian Chase of Phantom Records. The label boasts an eclectic mixture of artists across various genres. Its first release was a vinyl EP from Sydney electro-goth band Cult 45...

 in 2005 and toured with Slipknot
Slipknot (band)
Slipknot is an American heavy metal band from Des Moines, Iowa. Formed in 1995, the group was founded by percussionist Shawn Crahan and bassist Paul Gray...

 and Mudvayne
Mudvayne
Mudvayne is an American heavy metal band. Their work is marked by the use of sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate visual appearance, which has included face and body paint, masks and uniforms...

 before coming to a halt when Ludbrook left in the middle of the year. Several months later, Norton posted on the Superheist website that he and Drew Dedman were working on new material and posited that the band could reform. However, this has not proven to be the case. The Superheist website no longer exists and Norton, Sanders and DeSilva reactivated Walk the Earth in 2007 with vocalist Adam Kingsley and bass player Steve Watts (from the thrash band Manticore), although both Sanders and Watts have since departed the group. An album was planned for late in 2007 or early 2008.

Revolucion Street

Fetah Sabawi produced an album under the name Revolucion Street featuring Drew Dedman on bass and Mark Hosking from Karnivool
Karnivool
Karnivool are an Australian progressive rock band formed in Perth in 1997. The group currently consists of Ian Kenny on vocals, Drew Goddard and Mark Hosking on guitar, Jon Stockman on bass guitar, and Steve Judd on drums. Karnivool emerged from a band Kenny and Goddard formed during high school...

 on guitar and vocals in 2003 titled "Chapter one: life outside the circle". Although the album was distributed through MGM and the single "Life outside the circle" received airplay via Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...

, commercial success was very limited. With the success of Karnivool looming, Hosking left Revolucion Street and it was announced on the band's website that a new singer, bass player and drummer had been found and work had commenced on the second album. However, for reasons unclear the new formation split and yet another had begun, this time featuring Sabawi with the Melbourne three-piece band "Mister Skizim". Sabawi announced in April 2008 on the band's website that Revolucion Street plan on releasing a second album within the year.

Lanstrum

Lanstrum is the new band of Drew Dedman and Joey Biro. The debut single - Exceptional Remedy, was released on myspace
Myspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

 in November 2008. This being the first collaboration and release in 4 years for Biro and Dedman. The bands sound has been referred to as a "higher energy" version of heist. The Lanstrum sound although primarily driving riff rock/metal also shows some flavorings of drum/bass groove, a hangover from Drews days playing with Melbourne band K-Oscillate.
In August 2009, the band put the second myspace demo "The Eclipse" online and along with Exceptional Remedy they went straight to #1 and #2 on Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...

 Unearthed Metal charts. The bands third demo "One the Same" was put online in September 2009.
The other band members include guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

/songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

 Ash Mannerheim (Project X), Rob Brens (Alarum
Alarum
Alarum are a 4-piece progressive technical metal jazz-fusion band from Melbourne, Australia. They are stylistically quite similar to early-90's pioneers Atheist and Cynic. They are also known to play Death covers in live shows—another band which influences them greatly...

) drums, Jon Chamberlain on keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

 and Rob Farnham (Lunchcutter, Nana-zhami), son of Australian singer John Farnham
John Farnham
John Peter Farnham, AO, formerly billed as Johnny Farnham , is an English-born Australian pop singer. He was a teen pop idol from 1964 to 1979, and has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist although he briefly replaced Glenn Shorrock as...

, on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 and vocals.
Their debut EP is due for release in November 2009.

Jericco

Fetah Sabawi now plays keyboards in the Melbourne-based Middle Eastern-influenced hard rock band Jericco - alongside Brent McCormick (vocals), Jordan Nagle (guitar), Roy Amar (bass/Oud) and Luke Halstead (drums). They have been playing gigs since late 2008—they have often supported Mammal
Mammal (band)
Mammal were an Australian band that formed in March 2006. Mammal rose up the ranks of the Australian music scene very quickly. Their first self titled EP was recorded soon after the band came together. Their debut live album "Vol:1 The Aural Underground" was recorded just 4 months after the band...

—and released their debut self-titled EP in 2009. In May 2010 they released the digital single "Nice to See You". A launch tour for this was quite successful; the band sold out the Evelyn Hotel in their hometown of Melbourne. This was followed later in the year by the physical release of the "Nice to See You" EP, which in addition to the title track featured the four other new songs that had been played regularly in past live shows.

Members

  • D. W. Norton, guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

     1993–2004
  • Chris Ainsworth, synthesizers and samplers
    Sampler (musical instrument)
    A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...

     1996-1997
  • Fetah Sabawi, keyboards
    Keyboard instrument
    A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

     1998–2004
  • Drew Dedman, bass guitar
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

     1999–2004
  • Sean Pentecost, drum
    Drum
    The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

    s 1993–1995, 1998–2004
  • Joey Biro, vocals
    Singing
    Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

     (replaced McLeod) 2001–2004
  • Rod McLeod, vocals 1993–2001
  • Adam Donath, bass 1993–1997
  • Simon Durrant, bass (replaced Donath) 1997–1999

Albums and EPs

  • Apocalypse
    Apocalypse demo
    Apocalypse demo is a demo by Australian nu metal band Superheist. It is their rarest recording, as well as their earliest and heaviest. Apocalypse was released as a demo to record companies, radio stations, magazines and anyone else who would listen in 1994, a year after the bands coming...

    [Demo EP] (1994)
  • Chrome Matrix
    Chrome Matrix
    Chrome Matrix is the lesser known debut EP from Australian nu metal band Superheist, released by Cut-Throat / Shock Records in 1997 three years after their first demo , of which two secret songs on the Ep originate from....

    [EP] (1997)
  • 8 Miles High
    8 Miles High
    8 Miles High was meant to be the debut album of Australian nu-metal band Superheist. Due to problems with record company and line-up changes, it was released as an EP instead....

    [EP] (2000)
  • The Prize Recruit
    The Prize Recruit
    The Prize Recruit is the first full-length album from the Australian band Superheist. It was recorded at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne, Victoria by Superheist and producer Kalju Tonuma and released on 15 April 2001.-Track listing:...

    (2001)
  • Identical Remote Controlled Reactions
    Identical Remote Controlled Reactions
    Identical Remote Controlled Reactions is the first full Superheist release to feature singer Joey Biro, who proved to be something of the bands savour, but catalyst to their eventual demise. IRCR proved far stronger than previous album The Prize Recruit in song personality and overall weight in sound...

    (2002)
  • New, Rare, Live
    New, Rare, Live
    10 years after its creation, D.W Norton offers mourning Superheist fans one last token of appreciation in the form of New, Rare, Live. The first CD New, Rare is a collection of the last songs Superheist recorded in the autumn of its days, the track The Road being an unofficial single and taking up...

    (2003)

Singles

  • "Have Your Way
    Have Your Way
    "Have Your Way" is a single by Australian nu metal band Superheist. The song was an intended single release and had a video released, however the physical single was pressed but never released for retail sale. Some copies off the single were released but only to media and press. After the...

    " (1998)
  • "Two Faced (Check Your HeadUp)" (1999)
  • "Karma" (1999)
  • "Crank The System
    Crank The System
    "Crank the System" is a single release by Australian nu metal band Superheist from their upcoming album The Prize Recruit.After their first EP, 8 Miles High, later works are more defined in their sound and tone; high energy and more traditional nu metal...

    " (2000)
  • "Bullet
    Bullet (Superheist)
    "Bullet" is the second single from debut album The Prize Recruit, by Superheist, a reworked version of a b-side from previous single Crank The System far exceeds the quality of its original form in quality and sheer bombast...

    " (2001)
  • "Step Back/Slide
    Step Back/Slide
    "Step Back" / "Slide" is a double A-side single by Superheist from their debut album, The Prize Recruit. The cover was a cardboard sheath over a jewel-case CD featuring a flip style alternative cover with concept art for the two A-sides...

    " (2001)
  • "7 Years" (2002)
  • "A Dignified Rage
    A Dignified Rage
    "A Dignified Rage" is a song by Superheist, released as their second single, from their album Identical Remote Controlled Reactions.-Track listing:*AUS CD Single PIV0003*#"A Dignified Rage" - 3:19...

    " (2002)
  • "Liberate
    Liberate (Superheist Song)
    "Liberate" was the last single to be released by Superheist from their 2003 album Identical Remote Controlled Reactions and the last single while they were formed. After a long gap since the previous single A Dignified Rage, the band considered many followup singles , but never followed through...

    " [Radio Only] (2003)
  • "The Road" [Radio Only] (2004)
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