Andrew Hudson talks Exsequiis, creative freedom and the strength of Australian thrash
Twenty years ago, four teenagers from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs came together for a high school thrash metal performance. They chose the name Harlott largely because they thought it would look good on a black shirt.
Two decades, five studio albums and a deal with Metal Blade Records later, the name has done considerably more than survive the original shirt test.
Harlott are now preparing to unleash Exsequiis, their first album in almost six years and arguably the boldest step forward of their career. It is an album filled with dissonance, melody, scientific ideas, social frustration and the kind of tightly controlled thrash metal carnage the band have spent twenty years refining.
I recently caught up with Harlott founder, guitarist and vocalist Andrew Hudson to dig into those twenty years, the creative freedom behind Exsequiis, the funeral procession for a burning god and the strength of the Australian thrash metal scene.
From John Farnham and Enya to Metallica and Slayer
Taking things right back, Andrew’s earliest musical memories are connected to long family drives and the wildly varied music playing around him.
John Farnham, Meat Loaf, Jethro Tull and Enya were all part of that early soundtrack. At six years old, Andrew received a plastic toy guitar that produced rock star noises whenever he pressed its buttons. He strapped it on and refused to take it off for the rest of Christmas Day.
The heavier doorway opened when his older brother brought Metallica’s Reload into the house. Andrew was only seven, but the combination of accessibility, attitude and heavy riffs immediately grabbed him.
From there came Load, the Black Album and eventually the earlier Metallica records. By the age of twelve, Andrew was exploring the Megadeth back catalogue. Slayer followed at thirteen, with black metal and alternative music entering the picture during his teenage years.
It was a familiar story for those of us who discovered heavy music through the supposedly divisive Metallica albums of the 1990s. Whatever older fans thought about that period, records such as Load and Reload opened the door for an entire generation.
Twenty years without destroying everything else
Keeping any band alive for twenty years is a remarkable achievement. Doing it while creating heavy music from Australia brings an entirely different collection of financial and geographical challenges.
For Harlott, survival has not come from blindly chasing fame. It has come from understanding what they genuinely want the band to be.
Metal Blade became involved with the release of Proliferation in 2015, taking responsibility for much of the promotional, printing and administrative work surrounding the band. That support allowed Harlott to concentrate on writing music while opening doors that would have otherwise remained closed.
Just as importantly, the band never sacrificed every other part of their lives in pursuit of an imagined level of success.
“Don’t bust your ass for a dream that you might realise you hate when you get there,” Andrew explained.
Harlott found a balance that worked for them. They played shows when those shows made sense, toured when the opportunity was right and recorded albums when the material was ready.
That honesty may be one of the central reasons Harlott are still standing after twenty years. The band never allowed somebody else’s definition of success to become more important than the enjoyment of creating music together.
Breaking beyond the Extinction Trilogy
Harlott’s first three albums form what Andrew calls the Extinction Trilogy.
Origin, Proliferation and Extinction were connected through a biological progression inspired by Andrew’s background in biochemistry. They followed the movement of a cellular life cycle while establishing the fast, technical and relentless thrash metal sound that introduced Harlott to the wider world.
During the band’s early years, Andrew considered three albums an ambitious goal. If Harlott could create three records connected by one larger idea, he would have achieved something he could remain proud of.
Reaching the fourth album removed those original boundaries.
Detritus Of The Final Age became a blank creative slate. Written during a difficult period in Andrew’s life, the album introduced more personal experiences alongside dissonant riffs, unconventional sounds and ideas the band might previously have avoided.
The response gave Andrew permission to push those instincts considerably further.
With Exsequiis, Harlott have doubled down on the unsettling qualities introduced through Detritus Of The Final Age. Notes clash and ring across one another, rhythms move outside the expected patterns and songs regularly shift between aggression, atmosphere and triumphant melody.
“I tried to make it ugly and angry and fast and aggressive, and kind of triumphant in some sections, but unpleasant in others,” Andrew said.
It is a combination that perfectly captures Exsequiis. The album remains unmistakably Harlott, but its definition of what Harlott can be has grown much wider.
The impossible boundaries of thrash metal
Thrash metal fans can be fiercely protective of the genre, but those expectations can also trap bands inside an extremely narrow creative space.
“Thrash is very much a damned if you do, damned if you don’t genre,” Andrew explained.
If a band sounds heavily influenced by Slayer, most listeners celebrate it while others dismiss the music as imitation. If that same band moves too far away from those influences, another group will complain that it is no longer thrash metal.
After twenty years, Andrew is no longer interested in allowing those arguments to dictate what Harlott can create.
The last two albums have been guided by a much simpler philosophy: write whatever feels right and hope people connect with it.
That creative freedom is heard throughout Exsequiis. The record respects the foundations of thrash while refusing to spend forty six minutes repeating the same idea.
A funeral procession for a burning god
The title Exsequiis is a Latin term connected to funeral rites and processions.
Its meaning continues the apocalyptic progression established across Harlott’s catalogue. After society collapses and humanity destroys the planet, each other and everything it created, what could possibly remain?
For Andrew, the answer was God.
The artwork created by Shaun Farrugia of In Malice’s Wake depicts a burning deity as a funeral procession passes below. Its form is inspired by the biblical Ophanim, but the circular shape can also resemble an atomic model or a solar system.
That ambiguity was intentional. The image can be read as religious, scientific or something existing between the two.
Andrew also wanted to support Australian creativity wherever possible. With Harlott guitarist Leigh Bartley also playing in In Malice’s Wake, the connection between the two bands was already strong. Bringing Shaun into the album extended that relationship while giving Exsequiis a visual identity rooted within the Australian scene.
Eleven songs taking their own path
There is considerable power and intensity across Exsequiis, but it is also a surprisingly dynamic record. Melody, atmosphere and space are allowed to breathe between the faster sections, helping each shift land with more impact.
Andrew did not approach the album with a rigid formula for balancing those elements. Instead, he allowed the individual songs to reveal what they needed as they developed.
The resulting eleven tracks move naturally between speed, groove, dissonance and melody without losing the identity connecting them.
One of the greatest surprises is “The Joyful Stain,” which Andrew described as one of the only Harlott songs without a fast section. There is no sudden thrash break waiting around the corner. It is slower, heavier and built around a memorable groove.
The response, however, was not quite what Andrew expected.
“This is the least thrash metal thing I’ve ever put my name to, and everyone’s like, ‘Yes, thrash is back.’ I’m like, ‘No.’”
Perhaps that reaction says something important about how Harlott have developed. The band no longer need to rely entirely on speed to sound dangerous or unmistakably themselves.
The lucky country becomes “girt by greed”
“The Joyful Stain” also turns its attention toward the state of modern Australia.
The song twists language from the Australian national anthem, including references to being young and free and replacing “girt by sea” with the considerably more cynical “girt by greed.”
Andrew does not consider it an attempt to rally listeners behind a particular political cause. It is instead an expression of disappointment with Australian politics and the institutions supposedly representing the people.
The wordplay makes its target unmistakable while leaving room for listeners to interpret the song through their own frustration.
It is an undeniably Australian song, but its themes of corruption, indifference and political self interest reach well beyond our shores.
Science, extinction and a still more glorious dawn
Andrew’s scientific background continues to shape the language and ideas found throughout Exsequiis.
“Kleptogenesis” takes its name from a biological reproductive process. Harlott use that concept to describe parts of society that survive by leeching from everything around them.
“Endling” draws upon the term for the final surviving member of a species, while “A Still More Glorious Dawn Awaits” is a deliberate reference to astronomer and science communicator Carl Sagan.
Sagan’s work had a major influence on Andrew’s household and upbringing. Andrew is also a chemist by trade with a background in biochemistry and biology, giving these scientific references a genuine connection to the person behind the lyrics.
Rather than constructing supernatural fantasies, Harlott look directly at humanity, biology, misinformation, extinction and the systems we continue to build around ourselves.
The results may be bleak, but they are grounded in an uncomfortably recognisable world.
Taking Exsequiis to Europe
Harlott’s Last Rites European run begins alongside the arrival of Exsequiis, giving the band the opportunity to launch the album in Germany.
Historically, Harlott have celebrated their album releases at home in Melbourne, with the Bendigo Hotel playing host to several of those shows. Launching the fifth album on the other side of the world represents a very different moment in their story.
It also reflects the dedication demanded of Australian bands attempting to build an international audience.
The cost of travelling from Australia to Europe immediately separates the bands willing to make that commitment. By the time an Australian act reaches an overseas stage, they have often already survived a difficult local proving ground and invested an enormous amount into being there.
As Andrew observed, an Australian band can spend more time flying to Europe than it will spend performing across the entire tour.
That reality makes every show matter.
What makes Australian thrash different?
Australia may not have a globally recognised thrash movement on the scale of the Bay Area, Germany or Brazil, but its contribution to the genre runs deep.
Mortal Sin helped establish that history, while bands such as Harlott, Hidden Intent and In Malice’s Wake continue to carry Australian thrash into the present.
Andrew believes the size of the local scene contributes to the consistently high standard of Australian bands. With fewer opportunities available, musicians must deliver strong songs and an undeniable live performance if they want to remain relevant.
The bands that successfully take their music overseas have already overcome considerable financial, logistical and geographical barriers.
Andrew praised Hidden Intent for the work they continue to put into the band, highlighted the way In Malice’s Wake become heavier and stronger with each album and expressed his interest in seeing whether the returned Mortal Sin might follow their live comeback with new recordings.
Australian thrash has never truly disappeared. Its strongest bands have simply continued putting in the work, often without receiving the recognition at home that they earn overseas.
Here’s to another twenty
Exsequiis is not the sound of Harlott looking backwards at the past twenty years.
It is the sound of a band confident enough to protect its identity while tearing down the boundaries surrounding it. The speed and razor sharp riffing remain, but they now exist alongside dissonance, atmosphere, groove, melodic guitar work and ideas reaching from cellular biology to the funeral procession of a god.
Harlott have reached this point by building the band on their own terms. They resisted the temptation to destroy everything else in pursuit of somebody else’s version of success, and that decision has allowed the music to remain exciting.
At the conclusion of our conversation, Andrew kept his message simple.
“Here’s to another twenty.”
After hearing Exsequiis, I am more than ready to raise a glass to that.
Exsequiis album details
Exsequiis arrives on September 11, 2026, through Metal Blade Records.
Harlott are:
Andrew Hudson: guitars and vocals
Tom Richards: bass and vocals
Leigh Bartley: guitars
Glen Trayhern: drums
**Preorder or listen to Exsequiis: **metalblade.com/harlott
**Bandcamp **
https://harlottmetal.bandcamp.com/music
