ALCHEMIST

Adam Agius (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Rodney Holder (drums); John Bray (bass); Roy Torkington (guitars)

Pinching ingredients for their musical potions from just about every form of contemporary rock music, over the course of four albums and more than a decade of years Canberra's Alchemist have established themselves as a singularly unique entity in Australian music circles. Death, black, progressive thrash, psychedelia, surf, electronica and even sprinklings of stoner grind have often combined in an awe-inspiring display of inventiveness and metallic brilliance which has continued to ensure Alchemist's popularity and progression. Endless touring and consistently diverse, interesting and essential album releases have all contributed to the band's success, not to mention international supports too numerous to mention. Alchemist push musical boundaries to their ultimate limit, and always with success. With a steady line-up since Roy Torkington replaced Andrew Meredith in 1992, the band has been able to consolidate a following and establish a musical foundation far more successfully than other less stable units. Alchemist is the only band to have featured at the annual Metal for the Brain benefit concert every year since its inception in 1991 and since the mid-1990s it has fallen to them to organise the festival. The first album suffered from bad production but was remastered for re-release in July 1999 and now features the work of early guitarist Meredith on four of the tracks, which are taken from the band's 1991 demo. Organasm marked something of a maturing of the typical Alchemist magic with shorter, more focused songs while retaining all the usual hallmarks. The band toured with Cryogenic and Psi.Kore on the World War Three tour in early 2000. Organasm was released worldwide in October 2001. Almost two years were spent working on the follow-up album, Austral Alien, that was released in May 2003 following a national tour with Opeth. Alchemist will head to Europe for touring in September 2004.

Discography:

Austral Alien (Chatterbox) 2003

Adam Agius (vocals, guitar, keyboards)
Rodney Holder (drums)
John Bray (bass)
Roy Torkington (guitar)
  1. First Contact
  2. Great Southern Wasteland
  3. Solarburn
  4. Alpha Capella Nova Vega
  5. Older Than the Ancients
  6. Backward Journey
  7. Nature on a Leash
  8. Grief Banner
  9. Epsilon
  10. Speed of Life
  11. Letter to the Future

Organasm (Chatterbox) 2000

Adam Agius (vocals, guitar, keyboards)
Rodney Holder (drums)
John Bray (bass)
Roy Torkington (guitar)
  1. Austral Spectrum
  2. The Bio-Approach
  3. Rampant Micro-Life
  4. Warring Tribes - Eventual Demise
  5. Single Sided
  6. Surreality
  7. New Beginning
  8. Tide In, Mind Out
  9. Eclectic
  10. Escape From the Black Hole

Jar of Kingdom '99 Re-release (Thrust) 1999

Adam Agius (vocals, guitar, keyboards)
Rodney Holder (drums)
John Bray (bass)
Roy Torkington (guitar)

Andrew Meredith (guitar)
  1. Abstraction
  2. Shell
  3. Purple
  4. Jar of Kingdom
  5. Wandering and Wondering
  6. Found
  7. Enhancing Enigma
  8. Whale
  9. Brumal: A View From Pluto
  10. Worlds Within Worlds
  11. Enhancing Enigma (demo version)
  12. Escapism (demo version)
  13. Imagination Flower (demo version)
  14. Womb Syndromb (demo version)

Eve of the War (EP) 1998 (Thrust)

Adam Agius (vocals, guitar, keyboards)
Rodney Holder (drums)
John Bray (bass)
Roy Torkington (guitar)

Josh Nixon (guitar)
  1. Eve of the War
  2. Yoni Kunda (live)
  3. Chinese Whispers (live)
  4. Koni Yunda (remix)
  5. Brumal: A View From Pluto
  6. Worlds Within Worlds

Spiritech (Thrust) 1997

Adam Agius (vocals, guitar, keyboards)
Rodney Holder (drums)
John Bray (bass)
Roy Torkington (guitar)
  1. Chinese Whispers
  2. The Road to Ubar
  3. Staying Conscious
  4. Beyond Genesis
  5. Spiritechnology
  6. Inertia
  7. Hermaphroditis
  8. Dancing to Life
  9. Figments

Lunasphere (Thrust) 1995

Adam Agius (vocals, guitar)
Rodney Holder (drums)
John Bray (bass)
Roy Torkington (guitar)
  1. Soul Return
  2. Lunation
  3. Unfocused
  4. Luminous
  5. Clot
  6. Yoni Kunda
  7. My Animated Truth
  8. Garden of Eroticism
  9. Closed Chapter

Jar of Kingdom (Lethal) 1993

Adam Agius (vocals, guitar)
Rodney Holder (drums)
John Bray (bass)
Roy Torkington (guitar)
  1. Abstraction
  2. Shell
  3. Purple
  4. Jar of Kingdom
  5. Wandering and Wondering
  6. Found
  7. Enhancing Enigma
  8. Whale
  9. Brumal: A View From Pluto
  10. Worlds Within Worlds

Compilation track: Escapism -- Redrum (Roadrunner) 1992

Compilation track: Black Metal -- The Promoters of the Third World War - A Tribute to Venom (Tribute) 1994 (Sweden)

Compilation track: Garden of Eroticism -- This is Twelve (ABC) 1996

Compilation track: Austral Spectrum -- Under the Southern Cross (Chatterbox) 1999

Compilation track: Escape from the Black Hole -- Full Metal Racket (ABC) 2000

Compilation track: Surreality -- RadioRock Volume 1 (Columbia) 2000

Compilation track: Tide In, Mind Out -- Route 666 Volume 2 (Shock) 2000

Compilation track: Warring Tribes -- Metal for the Brain 2001 (Metal for the Brain) 2001

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This page is part of The Australian Metal Guide