‘Contraband’ the people’s choice for favourite heavy track of 2021!

Voting took place at hardest100.com.au

Over 60k votes streamed in over just 3 weeks

Countdown and Events presented by Amazon Music
& supported by TheMusic.com.au, Kill Your Stereo & iHeartRadio

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The track, which was their first single release of 2021, saw them team up with LaPlante for a dynamic slice of metalcore that creeps to life with a chilling piano melody. The band said of the song at the time of release, “Lyrically the song is about everything and nothing at the same time. It’s about relationships with friends and family, but also a low-key political song, as well as an expression of the frustrations surrounding COVID-19 and its impact on our lives, particularly as members of the music community. ‘Contraband’ is a buildup, the result of two years without musical catharsis.”

Looking at the numbers, this year’s Hardest 100 showed a couple of interesting trends – listeners were LOVING Australian Music in 2021 – with half of the total number of tracks being from the land down under! 17% of the Artists voted in featured female or non-binary members of their band, and this year was the first appearance of pop singers Miley Cyrus and Avril Lavigne into the Hardest 100 eschelons, following last year’s Halsey and Demi Lovato pop star firsts! Our Neighbours across the pond, New Zealand, copped 3 look-ins – Antagonist A.D., Alien Weaponry and Banks Arcade!

Though they didn’t take out the number 1 spot this year (as they have for 3 out of the now 5 countdowns to date), UK legends Architects place 5 tracks in the 100, plus Sam Carter featured as a guest vocal  appearance on Spiritbox‘s Yellowjacket. Other big winners throughout the countdown were Spiritbox with 4 tracks and 2 guest vocal appearances from vocalist Courtney LaPlante on the winning Make Them Suffer track and Erra‘s Vanish Canvas. Horror-obsessed outfit Ice Nine Kills slashed their way through the pack to place 4 tracks and The Amity Affliction and Bullet For My Valentine placed a respectable 3 tracks a piece in the field.

The Faction‘s Hardest 100 of 2021 Countdown took place today, Saturday March 5th 2022 and finished at shortly after 6:30pm AEST.

One Lucky punter drawn randomly took home a prize pack from Amazon Music valued at over $1000, and listeners all over the country picked up double passes to upcoming heavy music festivals Unify Forever, Halloween Hysteria, Full Tilt Festival, Monolith Festival and Uncaged Festival.

The countdown was hosted by newly-appointed Kill Your Stereo editor and community manager, Lili Jean Berry and The Faction founder Tim Price. Packed out Listening and Afterparty events took place all over the country – Brisbane at The Triffid and Netherworld, Sydney at Crowbar, Melbourne at Black Rabbit and Perth at Lynott’s Lounge.

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For more information, go to http://hardest100.com.au. For media enquiries, please contact Tim Price at Collision Course PR – tim@collisioncourse.com.au.

1. Make Them Suffer – Contraband feat. Courtney LaPlante

2. Bring Me The Horizon – DiE4u

3. Northlane – Clockwork

4. Spiritbox – Circle With Me

5. Architects – Impermanence

6. The Amity Affliction – Like Love

7. Lorna Shore – To the Hellfire

8. Architects – Dead Butterflies

9. Eskimo Callboy – We Got the Moves

10. Northlane – Echo Chamber

11. Stand Atlantic – deathwish feat. nothing,nowhere.

12. Thornhill – Casanova

13. Karnivool – All It Takes

14. Eskimo Callboy – Pump It

15. Spiritbox – Yellowjacket feat. Sam Carter

16. The Amity Affliction – Death is All Around

17. Seiran – The Void

18. Ice Nine Kills – Funeral Derangements

19. Seiran – Dismember

20. Ocean Sleeper – Forever Sinking

21. Slowly Slowly – Blueprint

22. Slipknot – The Chapeltown Rag

23. A Day To Remember – Last Chance to Dance (Bad Friend)

24. RedHook – Bad Decisions

25. In Hearts Wake – Dogma feat. Alpha Wolf

26. Knocked Loose – Permanent

27. Spiritbox – Secret Garden

28. The Amity Affliction – Give Up The Ghost

29. Windwaker – Toxic

30. Slaughter To Prevail – Baba Yaga

31. Ocean Grove – Cali Sun

32. Erra – Snowblood

33. Trivium – In The Court Of The Dragon

34. Yours Truly – Walk Over My Grave

35. Limp Bizkit – Dad Vibes

36. Machine Gun Kelly – Love Race feat. Kellin Quinn

37. Void Of Vision – The Lonely People

38. Ice Nine Kills – Hip To Be Scared

39. Sleep Token – Alkaline

40. A Day To Remember – Everything We Need

41. Trophy Eyes – 27 Club

42. Turnstile – Blackout

43. Korn – Start The Healing

44. Ice Nine Kills – Assault & Batteries

45. Spiritbox – Hurt You

46. Wage War – High Horse

47. Diamond Construct – Hit It Back

48. Gojira – Amazonia

49. Sentiment – Once a Rose, Now a Parasite

50. Void Of Vision – Vampyr

51. Bullet For My Valentine – Knives

52. Empire Within – Protagonist

53. Erra – Vanish Canvas feat. Courtney LaPlante

54. Turnstile – Holiday

55. Holding Absence – Afterlife

56. Limp Bizkit – Out of Style

57. Pridelands – Heavy Tongue

58. Stepson – Deeper Sleep

59. To Octavia – The Sound Of The Rain

60. RedHook – Kamikaze feat. Will King from Windwaker

61. Bullet For My Valentine – Parasite

62. Erra – Gungrave

63. alt. – Devils Cut

64. Architects – Meteor

65. Every Time I Die – Post-Boredom

66. Saviour – Reshape Me

67. Bad Omens – The Death of Peace of Mind

68. Deadlights – Born of a Lie

69. Gojira – Born For One Thing

70. Bullet For My Valentine – Shatter

71. Ice Nine Kills – Rainy Day

72. Sentiment – Tragedy

73. Architects – Discourse Is Dead

74. Diskust – Khronic

75. Avril Lavigne – Bite Me

76. Empire Within – Apathy

77. Twelve Foot Ninja – Start The Fire

78. Stand Atlantic – molotov [OK]

79. The Last Martyr – Hindsight

80. Miley Cyrus – Nothing Else Matters feat. WATT, Elton John, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo, Chad Smith

81. Wildheart – Backburner feat. Bruce Shillingsworth

82. Mirrors – Beneath The Sand

83. Motionless in White – Timebomb

84. Rumours – If Only You Could Feel Something Too

85. 3OH!3 – Vampires Diet feat. Bert McCracken

86. Wage War – Manic

87. Antagonist A.D. – The System is Racist and Oppressive

88. Headwreck – Freefall

89. Machine Gun Kelly – papercuts

90. Alien Weaponry – Tangaroa

91. Justice For The Damned – Sever What Makes Me Like Them

92. Terra – Arrows feat. Daniel Richards from Alt

93. Beartooth – THE PAST IS DEAD

94. Architects – Goliath

95. Banks Arcade – Dont Start

96. Bring Me The Horizon x Jeris Johnson – Can You Feel My Heart Remix

97. Mirrors – Purple Static

98. The Butterfly Effect – So Tired

99. Reliqa – The Bearer of Bad News

100. Stepson – The Entire History Of You

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