Recommended Aussie Tunes:Psycroptic | The new single "A Fragile Existence" | Listen

News : Polaris Make It Onto ARIA Album Charts

By on February 8, 2016

Polaris 2016

As an impressive and unanticipated feat of 2016, unsigned and independent act Polaris have successfully charted on the ARIA Album Charts. The Sydney based metalcore/melodic hardcore band debuted at #34 overall with their new EP, ‘The Guilt & The Grief’; further peaking at #11 overall for releases by Australian artists.

What is more impressive still is the fact Polaris managed this purely with the sales from iTunes and digital store sales only, distributed by independent digital distributor, Ditto Music. All physical copies that had been sold Polaris’ Big Cartel page were not counted toward in their ARIA-registered sales.

This result comes comes in the same week that they debuted at #1 in Rock and Metal on iTunes (overall at #6), as well as finishing at #11 overall and further being added to the upcoming Legion Festival in 2017 – joining such international acts as Devil You Know, Lordi, and Devildriver.

Polaris are due to kick off their tour next week alongside fellow Sydney, and UNFD-signed, act, Stories. Kicking off on Thursday 11th at Crowbar, Brisbane, and then Red Rattler in Sydney on Friday 12th.

The band fulfilled their Big Cartel pre-orders themselves and included hand-written notes to their fans, thanking them for the purchase, with over 500 physical CDs going out in the past two weeks.

The band are ecstatic with the result. Band member Daniel Furnari said “For us, having basically distributed a record out of our bedrooms, the idea of charting on the ARIAs was barely on our radar until the record had been selling for a few days. This result is just far beyond whatever we’d hoped for and it’s so rewarding to see it come to fruition. Including those thank you notes to the people that purchased CDs was really important to us, as physical copies of music are so undervalued now so we’re especially thankful for anyone supporting us on that end.”

The Guilt & The Grief was written between May and August 2015 before the band stepped into STL Studios with producer Sonny Truelove (Young Lions, Prepared Like A Bride) to create the record, which was then mixed and mastered by Carson Slovak and Grant McFarland (August Burns Red, I The Breather, Texas In July).

The road to the release of the EP has been a gradual, sure but steady build, with the two singles streaming on Youtube (Hold You Under features Marcus Bridge from Northlane), with a combined viewership of over 70,000 within 2 months of release. triple j spins on The Racket, Short Fast Loud and Home and Hosed, playlisting on Spotify’s “Go Hard or Go Home” playlist and a hugely successful premiere stream on Tone Deaf with over 10,000 spins in a week – have also bolstered love for the EP.

Click here to see our review of ‘The Guilt & The Grief’. You can purchase your copy of the EP through the links below:

iTunes: http://itun.es/au/lV0K_
Bandcamp:  https://polarisaus.bandcamp.com
BigCartel: http://www.polarisaus.bigcartel.com/

Catch Stories on tour next week with Polaris, Belle Haven, and Perspectives. Tickets on sale now via Oztix.

Thursday 11 February – BRISBANE

Crowbar  18+ 
with Vitals

Friday 12 February – SYDNEY

Red Rattler 18+

with Grizzly Adams

Sunday 28 February – WOLLONGONG

Rad Bar AA 
with Dear Seattle

Friday 4 March – ADELAIDE

Enigma Mar 18+

with Hindsight

Saturday 5 March – MELBOURNE 
Worker’s Club 18+ 
with Arkive

Stories Aus tour 2016

About

Jonathon is an aspiring fantasy/sci-fi novelist and music journalist. Thanks to the influence of the music he grew up with, he has always possessed a keen interest in metal and rock. He is also a huge fan of mythology, legend, and folklore from all across the world. You should follow him on Twitter.