Bleeding Face

Pic by Elissa Fletcher

ORIGINS: Northern Beaches, NSW

GENRE: Hardcore

YEARS ACTIVE: 1996-2002

 

MEMBERS:

• Ari Mattes - Vocals 
• Kas Mattes - Guitar
• Sebastian O'Reilly - Drums (1996-1999)
• Michael Nelson - Bass (1996-1997)
• Miles Talbot-Stern - Bass (1997-1998)
• Luke Lovelock - Bass (1998-1999)
• Rob McKenzie - Bass (1999-2002)
• Seed - Drums (1999-2002)

RELEASES:

• Demo (1997) [as Us Against Them]
• 1. Us Against Them
• 2. Laugh and Cheer
• 3. Carjack in Redfern
• 4. Drunken Exit
• 5. No Mourning

• Demo (1997) 
• 1. Motiveless Death
• 2. Ice Pick in Mexico
• 3. Scarred
• 4. Atomic Explosion
• 5. Mike
• 6. Sick Cunt

• Self-titled [Split with Stamanech 6.40] (1998) - Download Here.
• 1. Knife Wound to the Face
• 2. Life
• 3. Mike
• 4. Revenge
• 5. Glass Cake
• 6. Motiveless Death

• Blood Still Drips (1998)
• 1. No Respect
• 2. Martin
• 3. Invasion of Space
• 4. Massacre On Melrose
• 5. First to Attack
• 6. Untitled
• 7. Scarred
• 8. Innocence Lost

• Slam 'n' Bleed [Split with Choke Slam] (1999)
• 1. Horror
• 2. Good Wife
• 3. Philanthropist
• 4. Teenybopper
• 5. Act of Faith
• 6. Society is Pressure
• 7. Knife Wound to the Face
• 8. Life in a Cage
• 9. Anger
• 10. Die at Home
• 11. Weed
• 12. Goblin Dog
• 13. Extra Live Tracks

• Symbiotic Death (2000)
• 1. Decay Over Time
• 2. Symbiotic Death
• 3. Glance Into the Darkness
• 4. Jason (A Metaphor for Death)
• 5. Incredible Cruelty
• 6. Centrifused

• Tomb of Illusion (2001)
• 1. Watch the Hunted Die
• 2. Void of Hysteria
• 3. Et In Arcadia Ego
• 4. Spiritual Ruins
• 5. Centrifused
• 6. Into the World
• 7. Untitled at Birth
• 8. Spherical Impulse

• Compilation-only tracks
• Sick-O (1998) - on Cover Whatever You Want Volume 2 (Snapshot Records compilation)

SUMMARY: Started in 1996 as the punk band Us Against Them by the Mattes brothers, the band played a small handful of shows under this name before shifting direction into a more hardcore sound in late '97 and changing their name to Bleeding Face. The band played for a year each with two bassists - Miles Talbot-Stern first, and then Luke Lovelock (son of Celibate Rifles frontman Damien Lovelock) before settling with second drummer Seed and final bassplayer Rob. Bleeding Face toured interstate and released several 7"s before finally recording an album before members drifted on to new projects.

 

SHOWS: 

• Lane Cove Youth Centre, Lane Cove - 27th June, 1997 (as Us Against Them)
• Black Box, Newcastle - 7th January, 1998
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 24th January, 1998
• Newtown PCYC, Newtown - 21st February, 1998
• Newtown PCYC, Newtown - 25th April, 1998
• Southern Cross Hotel, St Peters - 7th November, 1998
• Black Box, Newcastle - 5th February, 1999
• Lane Cove Youth Centre, Lane Cove - 26th March, 1999
• Commonwealth Park Ampitheatre, Canberra - 10th April, 1999 (ACT)
• Thirroul Neighbourhood Centre, Thirroul - 11th April, 1999
• Bat and Ball, Surry Hills - 16th July, 1999
• Thirroul Neighbourhood Centre, Thirroul - 18th July, 1999
• Hunter on Hunter, Newcastle - 23rd July, 1999
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 2nd October, 1999
• PCYC, Hornsby - 2nd June, 2000
• Coledale Senior Citizens Centre, Coledale - 6th August, 2000
• Rehearsal Studio, Marrickville - 2nd September, 2000
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 16th September, 2000
• Bat and Ball, Surry Hills - 21st April, 2001
• Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills - 9th June, 2001
• Green Square Hotel, Zetland - 30th June, 2001
• Bat and Ball, Surry Hills - 4th August, 2001
• Green Square Hotel, Zetland - 9th August, 2001
• Green Square Hotel, Zetland - 12th July, 2002

ORAL HISTORY:

MICHAEL: Seb and I were thinking about starting a band, we hadn't ever played an instrument at that point. We met Kas through a mutual friend and Kas roped in Ari, who was 14 at the time. It's funny looking back how easy it was to start a band back in those days. We were inspired by DFL, Minor Threat, Toe to Toe, skate punk stuff, Beastie Boys... Kas introduced us to Vicious Circle, 7 Seconds, and older stuff. The mid-'90s was a pretty strange time for hardcore... there were a lot of jock-type bands which had started to pop up and that put me off for a while.

Michael Nelson (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KAS: Around 1996, Sebastian, Michael and I met at Waterloo Skate Park. We bounded over skating and discussing music. There was a little Youth Centre there that had musical equipment and the youth worker there let us start jamming there. My little brother Ari then stepped in on vocals. At that time we were listening to loads of different stuff from just about any genre you can imagine. We still didn't realise genres existed. I had been really into English punk and was discovering more US and European hardcore punk. As far as local music goes we were going out and seeing bands like Subversion, Stalin's Organ, Toe to Toe, Fallout, Iron Sausage, Forward Defence, Celibate Rifles, Hellmenn... If I listen to early Bleeding Face I definitely hear powerviolence (Infest, No Comment, Voorhees), some straight edge hardcore (Youth of Today, Minor Threat) and some AC/DC. Ari was into a mix of hard rock and death metal. We were big Bodycount fans too.

Kas Mattes (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ARI: Kas had been playing guitar for a while, and he started jamming with Sebastian and Michael. There was a youth worker at Waterloo who kind of provided a space for them to jam and, at the beginning of 1997, I started singing some of the songs. We started jamming at Sebastian's place on Newman Street in Newtown at that point. 

Ari Mattes (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KAS: Around 1996, Sebastian, Michael and I met at Waterloo Skate Park. We bounded over skating and discussing music. There was a little Youth Centre there that had musical equipment and the youth worker there let us start jamming there. My little brother Ari then stepped in on vocals. 

Kas Mattes (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

MICHAEL: We were called Us Against Them and we only did about three shows I think. The first one was at Lane Cove Youth Centre with Cult 45 and F.D.K.. We also played a couple of house parties and a Sydney Park show and that was it! It was very short-lived.

Michael Nelson (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KAS: Our first show was arranged by the youth worker at the Lane Cove Youth Centre with a band called Fearless Doctor Kill, and another bandcalled With Pins (an industrial goth band featuring the drummer from Subversion). It was mixed bills, the crowd seemed to be all angsty 14 year old goths and a few families.

Kas Mattes (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ARI: We called ourselves Us Against Them and played a couple of gigs under that name - one at Lane Cove Youth Centre with With Pins and Cult 45, one at a festival in Sydney Park, and one at a party in Newtown. Our songs were going in a more hardcore punk direction whereas Mike liked stuff like the Beastie Boys (more of that hip hop kind of crossover stuff), so we parted ways with Mike and joined up with this American guy called Miles and renamed the band Bleeding Face. We came up with the name in consultation with me and Kas' mum, who has named many Sydney bands, including AVO. We would jam at Zen or at our place in Collaroy.

Ari Mattes (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KAS: The second show was at the Zetland Hotel with The DTs and The Last Hemeroids. This was a bit more punk rock  than our first show. The famous Sydney Cricket Ground nude pitch-invader invaded our set, so we felt like rock stars. 

Kas Mattes (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

MICHAEL: Playing that first ever gig was fun. Getting into a room and writing songs as an outlet was the best thing ever. Kas, Seb, and Ari went on to form Bleeding Face afterwards.

Michael Nelson (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KAS: The band was called Us Against Them and the name changed a few months later. We were Us Against Them as in the people vs. the system, Labor vs. Liberal, anyone vs. anyone. The name 'Bleeding Face' was a bit more metaphorical - it was the idea that, even though you're defeated by the system and society, you still have to keep doing what you're doing, even with a bleeding face you have to keep fighting. Also there were bands we liked who'd coined the term 'Hate Core' and were trying to think of a hateful and violent band name. 

Kas Mattes (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

Pic by Elissa Fletcher

ARI: My lyrics were inspired by horror movies, other bands like Forward Defence and other Hate Core stuff - along with being straight edge, I also listened to a lot of death metal, stuff like Abramelin, but more than anything, my lyrics came from being an angsty and angry 15 year old teenager. I mean, my nickname was Anger. I don't know how that nickname came about but it stuck after Ari Rintala came on the scene... people needed to distinguish between us and Anger was better than 'Ari 1'!

Ari Mattes (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KAS: We mostly played All Ages shows. Youth Centres, Community Halls, and Scout Halls were the staple venues. Wollongong and Newcastle in particular had massive All Ages hardcore scenes. You'd go there and there would be droves of X'd up 12 and 13 year-olds floor punching. Kids outside of Sydney were more starved for something intense in their lives. I think the album cover for Suffer by Bad Religion sums this up nicely. It is American, but we can relate. 

Kas Mattes (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ARI: We played with the lineup of myself, Kas, Sebastian and Miles for a while, though Miles and I got on each other's nerves a bit. At the time I was playing rugby for the Narrabeen Tigers and was playing with a great footy player named Love Locklock. It turned out my sister had known his dad Damian (Celibate Rifles) back in the day, so we started talking about music and he started jamming with us. He replaced Miles and we had a great period of about a year where we were playing with the lineup of Kas, Sebastian, Luke and I. That lineup is on the recording of the Chokeslam split CD.

Ari Mattes (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ARI: There was kind of a strong scene on the Northern Beaches but I believe it had been better a bit before our time. Lots of classic bands like The Hellmenn came from the beaches. There were only a few hardcore bands and other than a few anomalous gigs (for example, we played at Warriewood Surf Club once, the Time and Tide Hotel in Dee Why, and Smurf's studio in Brookvale) the Northern Beaches bands - like us, Mope, Crankcase, Speedball (with Gary from Rust) - would usually play in the city. Kas would organise shows at the Hornsby PCYC because there wasn't really anywhere to play on the Beaches. 

Ari Mattes (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ROB: Bleeding Face played quite a lot of All Ages shows. They had a real kind of community atmosphere back then and were generally the most fun. A lot of people came from Newcastle and Wollongong and the All Ages scenes there were great. Personally, All Ages shows meant a lot to me.  I first started going to shows when I was 16 and it was a massive inspiration to see people of my age playing in really great, interesting bands. I used to go see Arms Reach, Zero Tolerance, Naval Graveyard, Straight to a Tomb, Access Step Correct, Fallout, Open Wound, FMD, Toe to Toe, Frontside, and Charcoal Human.

Rob McKenzie (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

Pic by Elissa Fletcher

ARI: We'd played at the Black Box in Newcastle with Miles on bass but didn't tour Melbourne until Luke joined. Black Box was awesome. I was 15 and very much loved playing there. It was always sweaty and packed. I remember catching a train to Newcastle in my school uniform to play! And saw some sick bands there as well - Fallout at the Black Box still comes to mind as one of the great gigs. Luke Crew was also a mentor and Fagin figure to all of us kids - we'd go to gigs in Newcastle and then 15 of us would stay at his house and he'd show us filthy horror movies. I remember going and buying whole chickens and 2 litre bottles of coke (it was when we were all straight edge) and skating around Newcastle with Luke, Chipper, Jamie, Edge, Christy, etc. It was also peaks Arms Reach period and we played some mad gigs with them. Christy, Luke and Amy all lived in this house on Veda St in Hamilton and we'd go to the Oasis after Black Box gigs and then sleep at their place.  

Ari Mattes (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KAS: I think we were able to hit a nerve in the late '90s because the scene was solid still at that point. Any young kids were supported and invited to play. People were genuinely interested and everyone encouraged each other. Difference was appreciated. It didn't matter if you didn't conform to a particular subgenre. Shortly after, I think this changed a lot... there were more rules, and probably a higher expectation to fit into something. People got a bit less tolerant of 'the other' when it came to style of music. Bands in general seemed to be more appreciated and valued in the'90s.

Kas Mattes (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

Ad for the split 7" with Stamanech 6.40, 1998

ARI: The Stamanech split came about through Kas' connection and friendship with some of the people in the band. I became mates with Pauly and Robbie (Stamanech) but didn't know them until we did the split and played in Melbourne with them. I also think Hedge had something to do with the release. The recording for the split and the Blood Still Drips 7" was done in the same session at Zen in 1998 and one of the reasons it sounds better than the CD (and lots of other stuff recorded at Zen) is that we got Scott Harper (who was a beast sound engineer) to record it. He'd recorded 'Do Not Spit' by Damaged. So Geoff Lee was still present but Harper was making the moves during the sessions. 

Ari Mattes (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KAS: Because of the split with Stamanech we went down to Melbourne and played with them and The Kill, Plead Insanity, Blood of Others, and I think Fallout or Heads Kicked Off. In Canberra we played the Botanical Gardens with Mugshot and Half Mongrel, then a metal gig a couple of years later at Woden Youth Centre with Eros Thanitas. I had a few friends in Canberra (from Mugshot and Forward Defence) and loved going there. It's got a pretty rich history in hardcore, metal, and crossover, so we considered it an honour to play there .

Kas Mattes (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ARI: The Chokeslam split was in 1999 and came about through playing with them a bit and also because Kas, Luke Lovelock and I were also based on the Northern Beaches.

Ari Mattes (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

REVIEW: Right now Sydney's punk 'n' hardcore 'scene' is the strongest I've seen it for quite a while, with plenty of people putting on shows and a whole crop of young bands out there, Bleeding Face being one of the standouts for me. Their lethal concoction of early death/thrash metal riffing (reminiscent of Celtic Frost and Destruction) courtesy of guitarist Kas, fused with blastbeat-driven hardcore workouts and the guttural sounding vocals of their crazed frontman proved to be just the thing needed to get the Bat and Ball's crowd moving... Witnessing Bleeding Face live should be sitting at the top of your list of things to do.

Review of Bat and Ball show (16th July, 1999) by Rod Hunt, Drum Media, 1999

ARI: Sebastian left because he was getting sick of it, I think. We used to jam a lot (that weird amount young people do - like we'd jam for eight hours three times a week sometimes) and I don't think he liked the heavier direction Kas and I were into. Luke Lovelock was still in the band, and then we made this switch where Rob and Seed came in, and Sebastian and Luke went out. Luke was meant to stay, playing second guitar - he was a beast guitarist, probably intuitively the best with whom I've played - but I think he was getting into drugs at the time. I was doing the HSC so I wasn't able to hang with him as much and he just kind of stopped being in the band. 

Ari Mattes (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ROB: I was playing in Deadstare, which had kind of evolved from One Step Ahead. One Step Ahead shared members with Bleeding Face - Seb and Miles. Luke Lovelock played bass in Bleeding Face after Miles and when Luke later wanted to leave it was Seb who suggested to Kas and Ari that I replace him. I was super keen to play with them so I learnt their set and played my first Bleeding Face show at the Iron Duke two weeks later.

Rob McKenzie (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ARI: Rob and Seed marked a significant change in sound - more towards heavier stuff like Cannibal Corpse or Obituary, and rockier stuff like Orange Goblin and Entombed... all bands we all listened to and loved. I started listening to '80s rock, like Motley Crue (which I'd loved as a kid but really got back into around this time). So the Rob-Seed era was really very different.

Ari Mattes (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KAS: Our inspiration changed radically from year to year, which is why all the releases sound pretty different.

Kas Mattes (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ARI: Symbiotic Death was a demo recording - the first recording we did with Seed and Rob. It was done in the basement at the Fotheringham house in Enmore (where Deathcage ended up rehearsing a few years later). Brett Hedge recorded and mixed this demo. 

Ari Mattes (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

Pic by Elissa Fletcher

ROB: It was great playing with Kas and Ari. They both have very different personalities and they are very close so there was never any weird sibling rivalry or tensions or anything like that. I remember their mum came to watch us play a couple of times and bought us all lemonade.

Rob McKenzie (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KAS: For our later shows (2001-2002) we were definitely unleashing our metal side, and playing with some pretty sick metal bands of the era, like Grenade, Dehuman, Spawn, Volatile, Deadspawn. I was really keen on trying to organise mixed bill/crossover shows: metal, punk, hardcore, and also retro rock/stoner bands. I don't know if the punters appreciated the mix as much as we did!

Kas Mattes (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ROB: I can't remember why it finished. We recorded the album in 2001 and that turned into a long process. We played a launch show and a couple more times after that and then it all wrapped up around 2002.

Rob McKenzie (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KAS: Recording the Tomb of Illusion album was fun but complicated. We were changing a bit. The style is about as far from the 7"s as you could imagine. The four members of the band were also pulling in four different directions, musically speaking. Funny 'cause all our recordings were done in the same room. We broke up before the album came out. Most of the copies are in a box in my garage. I forget the finer details of us breaking up but because we were pulling in those different directions we were all frustrated about only playing a little bit of what we wanted.

Kas Mattes (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ARI: We recorded an album - spent ages doing it - and then never released it. I was too serious and it stopped being fun, so we just stopped rehearsing. Our last gig was in 2002 while I was in a uni production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest!

Ari Mattes (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

RELATED BANDS: Sol Levy, Sleep Debt, The Circus Chaplains, One Step Ahead / Deadstare, Regular Boys Haircut / Three Found Dead, AVO, Maniac, Masstrauma, Deathcage, Ratbag, Mental Invasion, Cream Soda, Tyrannic, Own Enemy, Ether Rag, Bad Scene, TBX, Maniac, Romeo Bullet

SPECIAL THANKS: Clint Chapman.

Pic by Elissa Fletcher

Bleeding Face sticker