If you haven’t hopped on the SPEED train when they broke through, now is the time. The band formed in Sydney and blew past “local band” status the second the world caught up to what Australia already knew. BIPOC-fronted, community-driven, and fueled by the belief that hardcore is supposed to mean something. They went from DIY shows to global festivals without ever softening the true essence of hardcore. Beliefs in loving your people, protecting your scene, and playing music loud enough for the ones who can’t hear it anymore.
SPEED continues the pummeling of music that they’re known for. Three songs. Zero bullshit. Hardcore as grief, rage, and refusal to stop loving the ones who didn’t make it. The band doesn’t just represent the scene. They protect it. They also aren’t just the biggest band in Australian hardcore right now, but the scene’s most alive band. After a year that looked like a flex (Coachella, world tours, Turnstile support slot), All My Angels is the hardest pivot possible. The band offers up three songs about death, grief, and the cost of loving people you can’t get back.
Produced by Elliott Gallart at The Chameleon Studios, the EP is dedicated to three friends the band lost in recent years. You can feel that weight in every riff, every floor-breaking groove, every line Jem Siow screams like he’s trying to rip open the sky just to pull his people back through. This is SPEED at their heaviest, but also their most human.
The title track is the gut punch. The song starts in fury and ends in a plea, “All my angels, I can’t give up.” No slogans, no tough guy sayings, no scene-posturing. Just grief sharpened into mission. SPEED have always been about community, but this EP shows what that really means when the lights are off and real-life hits. The music video for “All My Angels” drives it home. It was filmed with friends, family, and crews from all over the world. People from Thailand, Flatspot bands, AUS HC lifers, and more. These aren’t just cameos, but proof that the scene is one long chain of people holding each other up.
Musically, this is the same SPEED DNA that you’ve grown to love. The obvious NYHC energy through an Australian lens. Fans of Trapped Under Ice, Backtrack, and Cold World take note. However, these songs feel colder, cut deeper, and are more deliberate. There’s no filler, no fast-for-fast’s-sake. Just three songs built like gravestones you can circle pit around.
All My Angels isn’t a victory lap for the band. It’s a memorial set to riffs. It’s short, it’s heavy, and it’s necessary. This should serve as a reminder that hardcore isn’t just music you scream along to beside people. It’s music to survive this insane world because of them.
