There are some interviews that are work, and then there are the ones where you sit there thinking, fuck, sixteen year old me would never have believed this. Catching up with Chris Rand from Segression definitely sat in that second camp for me.
I first came across Segression late one night watching Rage when I was around sixteen years old. “Cage of Nails” came through the television and that was pretty much it, I was sold. Here was this heavy Australian band that sounded fucking huge, but more importantly they sounded like themselves. They weren’t trying to be the Australian version of whatever was happening overseas. They were Segression.
Fast forward twenty years and in September 2016 I finally got to meet the band at New Dead Metal Fest here in Adelaide after winning an online competition for a signed Segression CD. That was during their twentieth anniversary year, so ten years later, getting the chance to sit down properly with Chris Rand for Crannk and talk about thirty years of Segression was already pretty bloody cool.
What made the conversation even better was realising very quickly that Chris wasn’t interested in spending the whole interview polishing old trophies. Segression have one eye on those thirty years, but the other is firmly looking forward, and from what Chris revealed during our conversation, that next chapter already has a name.
We Are Deathless.
THIRTY YEARS STARTED WITH FIFTY BUCKS
One of the things I love about talking to musicians who have genuinely lived through different eras of this industry is that the stories rarely start where you expect them to. Ask Chris about the beginnings of Segression and you might expect him to talk about rehearsals in Wollongong or the making of L.I.A., but instead we ended up talking about a $50 gig in Melbourne at one in the morning.
At the time, getting an interstate show felt massive. They were a young band from Wollongong heading to Melbourne and, in their minds, they had made it. The actual deal was considerably less glamorous, because they had effectively been given the graveyard shift in another part of a venue after Deicide finished playing.
Then somebody apparently decided throwing a can of VB at Glen Benton was a good idea.
Deicide’s show came to an abrupt end and a room that probably should have been nearly empty suddenly started filling with metalheads looking for somewhere else to go. Segression were told to start playing, but there was one fairly obvious problem: they didn’t have enough songs for what the night had just become.
So they played everything they knew, then basically played it again, and again. It is such an Australian metal story. Nothing glamorous or calculated, just a young band being handed a ridiculous situation and going, fuck it, let’s play.
That night led to another opportunity opening for Machine Head, and from there things started moving. Fear Factory followed, then Ozzy Osbourne, Slipknot, Pantera and a stack of other opportunities that would become part of Segression history. All these years later, you can trace some of the biggest moments in their career back to a fifty dollar gig that nobody could have predicted would mean anything.
And Chris wasn’t even supposed to be the singer. He was the bass player, and thirty years later he joked that he is still waiting for somebody to replace him. I reckon he might be waiting a while.
SEGRESSION NEVER REALLY FIT ANYWHERE
That became one of the strongest themes running through our conversation. Segression never really fitted neatly into anything, whether that was the Australian music industry, one particular heavy scene or even the genre tags people have tried sticking on them over the years.
Thrash, groove metal, nu metal, rap metal, death metal. Chris pretty much cut through all of it with the simplest description possible: Segression are a metal band.
That probably sounds obvious, but when you think about all the different periods they have survived, it says a lot. The Australian music industry Chris remembers from those early years wasn’t exactly rolling out the red carpet for metal. Radio was difficult, festivals were difficult and heavy music could feel like something parts of the industry would rather pretend wasn’t happening.
Segression just kept knocking on the fucking door until eventually they got through it. Triple J came, Metal for the Brain came, the international tours came and the venues got bigger, but what really stood out to me wasn’t Chris talking about those major opportunities. It was him talking about playing Griffith to fifty people after touring with Slipknot.
That tells you far more about Segression than a list of famous names ever could. They never decided they were suddenly too important for a small town or small crowd. If they could physically get there and play, they played, and that attitude is still there thirty years later.
THE SEGREGATED AGGRESSIVE ARMY DIDN’T START ONLINE
We talk all the time now about bands needing to engage their audience. Post more, make content, feed an algorithm, grow followers and build a mailing list. Segression were doing their own version of community building long before any of us were carrying the internet around in our pocket.
Chris told me they would literally leave pen and paper at the front door of shows. Write your address down and Segression would write to you. Write back to them and they would write back again. That mailing list eventually became the Segregated Aggressive Army, and thirty years later that connection between band and fan feels like one of the biggest reasons Segression are still here.
Their recent Wollongong show sold out well ahead of time, and Chris’s response to that support isn’t to squeeze another dollar out of people. Segression are planning to put on a free hometown show, with Chris also talking about giving away physical copies of new music and even a fucking bass guitar.
The thinking behind it is simple. People supported Segression, so Segression want to support them back. You can’t fake that shit.
FIFTH OF THE FIFTH WAS NEVER REALLY ABOUT THE END
Going through the records with Chris gave me the chance to revisit songs I’ve lived with for years from the perspective of the bloke who actually wrote them, and “Fifth of the Fifth” was one of the most interesting.
I think plenty of people have connected that song with the end of the world fears surrounding the millennium, and Chris had indeed been reading Nostradamus and the various predictions flying around at the time. But the idea behind the song runs deeper than some grand prediction that everything was going to disappear on 5 May 2000.
It was about the world ceasing to exist as we know it. Change, flux and the idea that nothing remains exactly as it was. You are not even exactly the same person you were ten minutes ago.
Some people grabbed onto the philosophy, some grabbed onto the apocalypse, and some probably didn’t give a shit about either and just loved that fucking riff. That is the beauty of music. Once you put it out there, people find their own doorway into it, and almost thirty years later people are still finding theirs into “Fifth of the Fifth”.
WHEN AUSTRALIAN METAL FELT LIKE STATE OF ORIGIN
We naturally ended up talking about the scene around Segression as well. Metal for the Brain, Blood Duster, Alchemist, Frankenbok, Superheist, Truth Corroded and an absolutely ridiculous amount of talent when you start running through that era.
Chris remembers there being a little more state rivalry back then. New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland had a bit of State of Origin shit going on between bands, but time has changed that. Now when he catches up with people from those years there are hugs, history and a shared understanding that whatever state you came from, everybody was ultimately flying the flag for Australian heavy music.
I loved hearing Chris talk about that because you could hear the emotion in him. This current Segression run isn’t just about reconnecting with songs, he is reconnecting with people. He told me he has spent parts of this tour feeling like he could cry because so many familiar faces and memories keep appearing in front of him.
After being away from this level of activity for eight or ten years, the band aren’t just dropping back in for a quick anniversary run either. Chris made that pretty clear when he said Segression want their belt and title back.
Good. Australian metal is always better when there are bands hungry enough to want the fucking belt.
SMILE, SEVEN STRINGS AND BEING CALLED EVERYTHING
Smile was obviously going to be a big part of this conversation. Released in 2000, it landed right as heavy music was going through one of those massive shifts where everything with low tunings and groove suddenly started getting jammed under the nu metal umbrella.
Segression had already been experimenting with seven string guitars and lower frequencies before that explosion really took over. Chris talked about new equipment opening up different possibilities and the band experimenting with sounds, sometimes even allowing a particular sound to lead them towards a riff.
But the most important thing he said about Segression’s writing had nothing to do with gear. They wanted to write songs, not just riffs or technical exercises designed to fit whatever metal was supposed to sound like that year.
A Segression song needed somewhere to go. It needed a story, a chorus and something somebody could connect with. That sounds simple until you realise how many heavy bands forget it, and it probably explains why tracks like “Dr. A Hype” and “The Thickening” still sit comfortably in a Segression set decades later.
THE INDUSTRY CAN KICK THE SHIT OUT OF YOU
The Smile era also led us into the business side of the story, and this is where thirty years in music teaches lessons you probably wish you never needed.
Chris talked openly about the Roadrunner situation and the disagreement around territories and rights. The whole thing eventually became legal and, as is so often the case when musicians and lawyers occupy the same story, Chris remembers everybody seeming to get paid except the people actually making and releasing the fucking music.
What I liked was that he doesn’t sound consumed by bitterness about it now. Those experiences shaped him. He became hands on, learned studios and production, learned how to chase sounds himself and learned how much control he wanted over Segression.
Sometimes the shit experience becomes the thing that teaches you how never to put yourself in that position again.
SLIPKNOT BEFORE THEY WERE SLIPKNOT
Then there is the Slipknot story. Segression were there for Slipknot’s first Australian tour, before Slipknot became the gigantic institution they are now and before generations of fans grew up immediately recognising every mask.
Chris remembers Adelaide particularly well, and one story involving Sid Wilson, a mould taken at an afterparty and a fairly interesting discussion with airline staff is probably better heard directly from Chris in the video than cleaned up by me here.
Trust me, hit play.
What stayed with me more was Chris talking about moving around with them when protecting their identities without the masks was genuinely important. He spent a fair bit of time with Joey Jordison, laughing that maybe they paired the two short guys together.
Now those memories carry a completely different weight. Joey is gone, Paul Gray is gone, and as our conversation moved through Segression’s history, loss became impossible to separate from the great memories.
AMERICA, DISTURBED AND THROWING MONEY AWAY
Segression taking a shot at America deserves a documentary by itself. They spent time in Chicago, recorded in Johnny K’s studio, hung around with members of Disturbed and played shows involving bands such as Hatebreed and Shadows Fall.
They were also doing all of that while on a visa that meant they couldn’t legally be paid.
Their solution was beautifully ridiculous. Get the money in dollar bills, hold it up, let go and blow it into the fucking audience. By the third or fourth show, Chris remembers Segression packing venues.
There is something almost perfect about that image. An Australian metal band travels halfway across the planet trying to crack America and literally throws its money into the crowd. Heavy metal financial planning at its finest.
PANTERA AND REALISING HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE GONE
We eventually got to the Pantera and Corrosion of Conformity run in 2001. Again, it would have been easy for the conversation to become nothing more than, “What was Pantera like?” Instead, Chris started thinking about the people he met during those huge periods of Segression who are no longer here.
Joey Jordison, Paul Gray, Vinnie Paul, Dimebag and Randy Castillo. Names attached to incredible memories, but also reminders that none of us are guaranteed another thirty years.
That part of the conversation hit differently. As you get older, you stop measuring time only in albums and tours and start measuring it in people who aren’t there anymore. Chris talked about those losses making him watch himself more closely and appreciate where he is now.
Honestly, that feeling runs underneath this entire Segression anniversary. It isn’t just, look what we did. It is also, fuck, we’re still here.
WHEN THE PLAN FOR AMERICA DISAPPEARED
The self titled Segression record arrived in 2002 during what Chris describes as a deeply confusing period for the band. They had expected to head back to America, but then September 11 happened and whatever plans existed suddenly belonged to a different world.
Travel changed, the economy changed and the whole atmosphere shifted. Segression had spent all that time working towards becoming something internationally and then watched forces completely outside their control wipe that pathway away.
Chris told me the self titled record is probably the Segression album he had the least involvement with. Not because he hates it, but because the band didn’t really know where the fuck they were going.
Do they become more commercial? Do they stay in Australia and keep repeating the same cycle? What is the endgame now?
Sometimes an album captures confidence and sometimes it captures confusion. That record carries a band trying to work out what comes after the plan disappears.
LIFE COMES HOME
That eventually leads into Side Effect X and one of the more interesting parts of Segression’s current story. The music from that period now sits under the Segression banner through Life.
Talking to Chris made his reasoning much clearer to me. From his perspective, it essentially was Segression. He played on it, it came from the same creative world and it simply represented another side of what the band could do.
There was more melody, more singing and more rock and pop influence. For years there was a line separating that period from Segression, but Chris doesn’t seem particularly interested in maintaining that line anymore.
And why should he? Thirty years gives you permission to look back at your own catalogue and decide where the pieces actually belong.
NEVER DEAD MEANS EVEN MORE NOW
Then came Never Dead, and I said to Chris during the interview that in hindsight it might be the most appropriate album title Segression ever came up with.
When that record happened there was no pressure. Nobody expected anything because, as far as plenty of people were concerned, Segression were an old dead band.
Chris’s attitude was basically: never write me off.
He told me everything he does comes from his heart, and unless that heart stops beating he is going to keep giving everything. That is Segression in one thought.
You can knock them down, stop the international plans, turn labels into a nightmare, let years pass and write the band off. Somehow they end up standing there again.
THE BEST OF SEGRESSION WASN’T ABOUT PICKING THE HITS
That same stubbornness carries straight into The Best of Segression. The obvious anniversary move would have been easy: find the biggest songs, clean them up, put thirty years on the cover and call it done.
Chris had a different rule. Pick the songs he believed he could make better.
Re record them, remix them, remaster them and find something new inside them. That rule explains why “Smile” itself isn’t there.
Chris couldn’t find a way to improve it.
Not because it isn’t good enough, but because it already is what it needs to be. I fucking love that approach because even while looking backwards, Segression found a way to make the exercise about moving forward.
STATIC X
The Static X cover “I’m With Stupid” also led our conversation somewhere unexpected. Chris spoke about his love for the band and then revealed that he has been involved with a number of unfinished pieces connected to the late Wayne Static, recording vocals on material that has not yet been publicly released.
There are still details around that situation that clearly need to play themselves out, particularly around how the material may eventually be presented and credited, so I’m happy leaving that story where Chris left it for now.
What it does explain is that putting “I’m With Stupid” alongside thirty years of Segression wasn’t just throwing a cover onto a compilation. There is a genuine connection there for Chris.
THEY MISSED SEGRESSION
This might have been my favourite part of the whole conversation. Not Slipknot, Pantera or Ozzy, but the fans.
Chris is genuinely blown away that people still care. He joked that Segression didn’t expect people to follow them for five minutes, never mind thirty years, and now they are selling out hometown shows and meeting people who have carried these songs with them across decades.
He described this tour almost like repeatedly saying goodbye to someone at an airport and wondering if you will ever see them again. That emotion is sitting right under the surface, and it goes both ways.
People missed Segression, and Chris missed them too.
That is why this anniversary feels alive. It isn’t four blokes recreating old photographs. There is an energy exchange happening between people who somehow made it through thirty years together, band and audience.
AUSTRALIAN METAL IS IN A FUCKING GREAT PLACE
Another thing I loved hearing from Chris was how positive he is about Australian heavy music right now. He talked about the support bands give one another, promoters doing the hard yards and festivals like Necrosonic showing just how deep the Australian talent pool still is.
Chris compared that feeling to Metal for the Brain, where punters would travel from across Australia purely to see Australian heavy bands. That matters, because we spend so much time telling Australian musicians they need to go overseas to become legitimate that sometimes we forget how much world class shit is sitting right here.
Segression came through an era that helped prove it, and now Chris is watching another generation carry it.
He is also apparently still trying to get Northy back onstage to sing “Fifth of the Fifth”. Northy, you’ve been warned.
ONE BIG FUCKING MOMENT
Towards the end I asked Chris what he is most proud of after everything. Thirty years, all the albums, America, Ozzy, Slipknot, Pantera and all the stops and starts.
He couldn’t reduce it to one thing.
For Chris, it is all one big moment, but there was one story he came back to from the Ozzy tour. His first daughter Kiara was born that week, induced early so Chris could still make the tour, and his wife then came to the first Sydney show.
That story probably sums up why celebrating a band through nothing but discographies and famous support slots never really tells you enough. Those things happen while real life is happening too.
Children are born, marriages continue, people die, people disappear from your life and people return. You get older and the record you thought was the end becomes something you made twenty five years ago.
Somehow you are still standing onstage playing songs you wrote when you were a completely different human being. Thirty years of Segression isn’t really thirty separate years, it is one massive fucking moment.
WE ARE DEATHLESS
Then Chris dropped the news that completely changed how I looked at this anniversary.
He has already written the first two songs for the next Segression album. This wasn’t “we might write something” or “we’ll see what happens”. Songs exist, demos exist and the album has a title.
We Are Deathless.
Chris is aiming at 2027 and he isn’t talking like somebody hoping to squeeze out one more record for the sake of it. He wants a landmark Segression album and one of the biggest records of their career.
He also knows enough about life now to acknowledge that nobody knows whether any album might be their last, and that seems to be making him hungrier rather than cautious.
Thirty years ago Segression were the bunch of Wollongong misfits who didn’t fit anywhere. They played the fifty dollar graveyard shift, knocked on doors until the doors gave way, travelled with some of the biggest metal bands on the planet and took a shot at America.
They got kicked around by the industry, stopped, came back, got written off and came back again. Right now Chris Rand sounds as fired up about what comes next as he does about anything that has already happened.
So yeah, celebrate thirty years. Put L.I.A. on, crank Fifth of the Fifth, go back to Smile and remember that ridiculous era of Australian heavy music we were lucky enough to grow up with.
Just don’t spend too long staring backwards, because Segression aren’t.
The first two songs are already written, We Are Deathless is coming, and thirty years later Segression still want their fucking belt back.
I wouldn’t bet against them.
FOLLOW SEGRESSION
YouTube: SegressionTheBand
Instagram: @segressionofficial
Facebook: Segression
SEGRESSION 30TH ANNIVERSARY SHOWS
The celebration isn’t finished yet either.
Segression are continuing to take the anniversary run around the country throughout the remainder of 2026.
SEPTEMBER 11 — ADELAIDE, SA
The Ed Castle
Segression
Dr Colossus
Speedball
Scum Fu
Fear and Loathing
Scab Run
This one has a particularly nice bit of symmetry for me personally.
Ten years after meeting Segression at New Dead Metal Fest in Adelaide during their twentieth anniversary year, I get to watch them roll back into the city celebrating thirty.
SEPTEMBER 18 — MELBOURNE, VIC
Bergy Bandroom, Brunswick
Segression 30th Anniversary & The Best of Segression Album Launch
Segression
The Witching Hour
Common Evil
SEPTEMBER 19 — GEELONG, VIC
Drencher Festival 2026 — Barwon Club Hotel
Segression
Infernal Method
Munitions
Allocer
Tongue Scum
Rat Tomb
Artifact
Godspeed!
NOVEMBER 14 — BEECHWORTH, VIC
Metal in the Mountains 2026 — Beechworth Historic Precinct
Segression headline the Saturday alongside:
Elm St
PistonFist
Kitchen Witch
Hematemesis
Helluloid
Virulent Invocation
Raise The Fallen
DECEMBER — WOLLONGONG, NSW
Segression are also preparing a completely free hometown show with PistonFist in December.
After their earlier Wollongong anniversary show sold out well in advance, Chris explained during our conversation that the reasoning couldn’t be simpler.
People have spent thirty years supporting Segression.
Now Segression want to give something back.
Chris also plans to give away physical copies of new We Are Deathless material and, because apparently a free show isn’t enough, a fucking bass guitar as well.
The exact date is still to be announced.
WATCH MY FULL INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS RAND
There is a shitload more in the full conversation than I could ever squeeze into one companion feature.
Chris and I go right back through the beginnings of Segression, the albums, Metal for the Brain, Slipknot, Pantera, America, Life, The Best of Segression, the Australian scene and what thirty years of this band means to him now.
Watch the full interview above and crank it loud.
