Eastlink

Eastlink surfaced as an Australian underground rock supergroup whose ferocious assault deploys four guitars and a drum kit while observing almost no stylistic restrictions. The name references a notorious freeway segment outside Melbourne whose construction inflicted severe ecological damage on the Mullum Mullum Valley and which displays an array of ineptly conceived public artworks. Al Montfort, already known through UV Race, Total Control, and Straightjacket Nation, initiated the band from a wish to create loud, minimal rock & roll with Zephyr Pavey, who participates in Total Control and Strength Within, and Johan Rashid, whose other projects include Home Travel and Promised Land. Though Montfort had played guitar in UV Race, he chose drums for Eastlink while Pavey and Rashid handled guitars; after several rehearsals as a trio, he enlarged the group to a quintet by adding Ben Hepworth of Interzone and Repairs plus Lee Parker of Teargas, Spitehouse, and Lakes. Creep Dreams, then an emerging label, issued the first Eastlink release in 2012 as a self-titled cassette containing seven songs. In 2013 Aarght Records reissued two tracks from the cassette on a limited vinyl 7". In the Red Records, an American independent imprint, subsequently placed another two cassette tracks on a vinyl single, and in May 2014 the same label released Eastlink’s debut full-length album, titled Eastlink.