Ocean Grove will bring their Oddworld Underground Australian Tour to stages around the country this August, with Melbourne’s heavy music collective returning home for a six date headline run alongside Cane Hill, Deficit and Blinder.
by Paul Cashmere
Ocean Grove have announced a new Australian headline tour for August 2026, with the Melbourne band taking the Oddworld Underground concept on the road for six dates nationally. The run begins in Perth on 13 August and continues through Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle before concluding in Brisbane on 22 August, with US act Cane Hill joining the line-up alongside Australian supports Deficit and Blinder.
The tour arrives during a period of sustained activity for Ocean Grove, whose profile has expanded well beyond Australia’s heavy music circuit over the past several years. While the Oddworld concept has increasingly become central to the band’s identity, this run also marks a return to domestic headline territory following a sequence of international support slots and major touring commitments.
For followers of Australia’s heavier alternative scene, the significance extends beyond another national run. Ocean Grove have become one of a handful of Australian acts that emerged from the post hardcore and metalcore ecosystem of the 2010s before reshaping themselves into something broader. Their blend of nu metal, hardcore, alternative rock and electronic influences has separated them from genre boundaries that traditionally define heavy music audiences.
The current tour cycle follows a period of momentum for the group. Earlier this year Ocean Grove won Most Performed Hard Rock / Heavy Metal Work at the 2026 APRA Music Awards for “Raindrop”, a track from their most recent album Oddworld. The band also completed UK and European touring commitments and supported both Poppy and Thornhill during recent runs.
Ocean Grove first formed in Melbourne in 2010 and initially emerged through Australia’s post hardcore underground before shifting toward a broader sound that integrated hip-hop rhythms, electronic textures and classic nu metal influences. Their debut album The Rhapsody Tapes, released in 2017, reached No. 5 on the ARIA Albums Chart and established the band as one of the more ambitious acts operating in the local heavy scene.
Subsequent releases Flip Phone Fantasy in 2020 and Up In The Air Forever in 2022 continued the band’s stylistic evolution, before Oddworld arrived in late 2024. The release also represented a new chapter structurally, arriving through SharpTone Records while coinciding with the launch of the band’s own Oddworld Records imprint.
Core members vocalist Dale Tanner, drummer and producer Sam Bassal, and bassist Brent “Twiggy” Hunter have increasingly framed the project as a wider creative collective. Earlier members Luke Holmes and Matthew Kopp also returned to contribute in studio capacities, with the group referring to the broader entity as “The Oddworld Collective”.
Musically, Ocean Grove’s influences have remained notably broad. The group has cited artists including Korn, Faith No More, Deftones, N.E.R.D., The Prodigy and Silverchair among their inspirations. That mix has helped position the band outside conventional metal structures while retaining a heavy foundation.
The support line-up also adds several distinct perspectives from the heavier end of alternative music. New Orleans act Cane Hill return to Australia for the first time in almost a decade. The band previously toured nationally in 2016 while supporting Bullet For My Valentine and have since released three studio albums including 2024’s A Piece Of Me I Never Let You Find.
Western Sydney act Deficit arrive on the tour following rapid growth on the local circuit, while Adelaide’s Blinder bring a sound rooted in heavy shoegaze and alternative textures.
For Ocean Grove, the tour represents another step in an ongoing evolution that has moved from Melbourne’s underground venues to international stages. Their Oddworld concept has become increasingly central to how the band presents itself, but the immediate focus is on bringing that identity back to local audiences for a headline run on home soil.
Ocean Grove Oddworld Underground Australian Tour 2026
13 August, Perth, Amplifier Bar
14 August, Adelaide, The Gov
15 August, Melbourne, 170 Russell
20 August, Sydney, Factory Theatre
21 August, Newcastle, Hamilton Station Hotel
22 August, Brisbane, Princess Theatre
Ticketing Details
Early bird pre-sale begins Thursday 28 May at 12pm AEST.
General public tickets go on sale Friday 29 May at 11am local time via Destroy All Lines.
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