melbourne's electro pop trio, nightlight, drop new single, 'heaven//below'
- Kaylah Chilcott
- Aug 14
- 2 min read
Nightlight, are as described - fun, colourful and bright in the darkness of the Melbourne heavy metal scene. They blend sounds of heavy guitars, clicky drums, powerful vocals paired with electronic beats to create upbeat and energetic noise that brings together the best of pop and metal. The trio are back with a new single ‘HEAVEN//BELOW’.
It dwells in a heavier realm than they’ve explored before, which explodes off the bat, before droping back into electronic sounds with Laura Lazzara’s voice over the top. Now, I’ve never been one for pop or electronic music, but something about this track tickles something in the back of my mind. Lazzara’s got a very pop sounding voice, think Charli XCX or Ashnikko, but it is much sweeter - and she can scream.
The chorus is super catchy, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, pretty boy” has been stuck in my head for days. They brazenly address expressions of desire, (consentual) domination and (consentual) control in a playful and cheery way, which is exactly how such themes should be explored.
‘HEAVEN//BELOW’s guitars are wickedly aggressive, and have a lot of attack. It is so full and rich sounding, the electronic aspects filling in a lot for the three piece, without it becoming overwhelming or messy. It doesn’t drown out the drums at all, and provides spaces and gaps for JORDAN HIGGINS to shine with impressive fills and assertive beats.
Their drawn out breakdown slows to build anticipation for the next drop. While it does follow a more typical song structure, the pacing, attack and resting between chorus’ doesn’t leave any room for boredom. It flips between electropop and modern metalcore (which tends to have electronic samples anyway), leaving the transition between the two genre’s nearly seamless.
Even at its heaviest, ‘HEAVEN//BELOW’ is bouncy and up beat, and I can see people dancing to this in an inner city club, or moshing in the pit at a Good Things. If you have a friend you’ve been trying to get into metal, this is the band. This is the gate way. NIGHTLIGHT are perfect for fans of Poppy, Babymetal and Ashnikko.
It’s accompanied by a music video which is very classic metalcore, with keytarist Hayley Austen’s instrument being nearly more than half her size - it’s kinda cute, if they also weren’t so formidable.
Nightlight have some events coming up you should 100% catch them at!
BIGSOUND - Brisbane - September 3rd and 4th - tickets here
Converge Festival - Brisbane - September 7th - tickets here
Converge Festival - Melbourne - September 14th - tickets here
STAY IN TOUCH WITH NIGHTLIGHT THROUGH THEIR SOCIALS!
