The Amity Affliction

Emerging from Australia in 2008, the metalcore outfit the Amity Affliction unveiled its debut album Severed Ties, marked by confessional songwriting and a melody-focused sound laced with emo elements. Momentum built in 2012 through the third full-length Chasing Ghosts, which reached the pinnacle of the Australian charts in the same manner as the later releases This Could Be Heartbreak (2016), Everyone Loves You... Once You Leave Them (2020), and Not Without My Ghosts (2023), while also securing success beyond domestic borders.

The Brisbane post-hardcore band the Amity Affliction originated in 2002 when longtime friends Ahren Stringer and Troy Brady, still attending high school, united after losing a companion in a road accident. Completed as a quartet by bassist Garth Buchanan and drummer Lachlan Faulkner, the group issued a demo in 2003 and an EP in 2004 yet gained real traction only after unclean vocalist Joel Birch came aboard in 2005, prompting extensive touring that established a national profile for their intense live performances. Keyboardist Trad Nathan joined in 2007 alongside a drummer switch that brought in Ryan Burt to replace Faulkner, while Buchanan departed and Stringer assumed bass duties. This lineup entered the studio for the EP High Hopes before delivering the 2008 debut album Severed Ties, which climbed to number 26 on the ARIA charts.

Further Australian touring followed in 2008 and 2009 in both support and headline roles, leading to the 2010 sophomore album Youngbloods that advanced to number six on the ARIA charts. The band bettered that result two years afterward when the third album Chasing Ghosts entered at number one. Roadrunner issued the fourth album Let the Ocean Take Me in 2014, marking the second straight ARIA chart-topper, though Brady exited that year and left Stringer as the sole remaining founder. Following extensive road work behind Ocean, the quartet tracked its fifth LP, This Could Be Heartbreak, which surfaced in August 2016 and again led the ARIA charts. Tours across Australia, the U.S., and Europe ensued until Ryan Burt departed in February 2018 for mental health reasons. Later that year the group delivered its sixth album Misery, its initial concept record that wove a continuous story around three companions pursuing vengeance. Two years after that arrived the weighty and depressive Everyone Loves You... Once You Leave Them, the first studio effort featuring new drummer Joe Longobardi. The 2023 release Not Without My Ghosts delivered a pummeling sound centered on mortality and included appearances from late New Zealand rapper Louie Knuxx, Comeback Kid’s Andrew Neufeld, the Plot in You’s Landon Tewers, and Phem.