Brisbane-born. Manchester-based. Guitarist-free. Saxophone-loaded. Completely bloody unhinged.
There are bands that bend the rules of heavy music.
There are bands that break them.
And then there’s FAKE8, who appear to have taken the traditional metal rulebook, fed it through a distortion pedal and beaten it senseless with a saxophone. 🎷🔥
Formed in Brisbane, Australia in 2023, FAKE8 are the brainchild of vocalist/bassist Chris Michael and saxophonist Mika Atkinson, an experimental extreme-metal duo determined to explore just how far heavy music can be pushed when you stop worrying about what instruments are supposed to do.
Their approach is gloriously unconventional.
There is no traditional guitarist.
The saxophone isn’t wheeled out for the occasional flashy solo.
The bass isn’t content hiding underneath everything else.
Instead, FAKE8 have built their entire identity around twisting the expected roles of their instruments into something heavier, stranger and considerably less predictable.
Now based in Manchester, England, and working towards new singles, multiple EPs and their first UK live appearances, FAKE8 are entering an exciting new chapter.
So, Riffers, grab your earplugs.
This one’s going to get weird.
🇦🇺 THE BEGINNING – BRISBANE, 2023
FAKE8’s story begins in Brisbane in 2023.
The project grew from Chris Michael’s desire to properly incorporate saxophonist Mika Atkinson into the increasingly extreme music he was writing.
That word — properly — is important.
Using saxophone within rock and metal isn’t a completely new idea. Plenty of adventurous artists have brought brass and woodwind instruments into heavier territory over the years.
But FAKE8 weren’t interested in treating the saxophone like some novelty guest.
They wanted it embedded directly into the machinery.
Instead of waiting patiently at the side of the composition before bursting into an occasional solo, Atkinson’s saxophone became an essential rhythmic instrument.
Suddenly the possibilities became considerably bigger.
And considerably stranger.
The unusual combination clicked.
Better than expected, in fact.
FAKE8 had found the foundations of their sound.
🎷 THE SAXOPHONE BECOMES A WEAPON
Mention saxophone and metal in the same sentence and plenty of people will immediately imagine some enormous experimental solo appearing halfway through a song.
FAKE8 take a different route.
Mika Atkinson’s saxophone is used heavily throughout the music, functioning as part of the rhythmic architecture rather than merely providing occasional decoration.
That approach helps give FAKE8 an immediately recognisable character.
The saxophone can stab through arrangements, reinforce rhythms, create texture and interact with the bass and drums in ways that a conventional guitar-led line-up simply wouldn’t.
It’s not:
“Here’s the metal bit… and now here’s the saxophone bit.”
It’s all one thing.
And when combined with FAKE8’s polymetric approach, things can become deliciously complicated.
Different rhythmic ideas collide and overlap, producing music that can feel mechanical one second and completely chaotic the next.
The listener isn’t always handed an obvious route through the song.
Sometimes you’ve just got to hold onto the nearest solid object and enjoy the ride.
🎸 NO GUITARIST? NO PROBLEM.
Then we get to perhaps the biggest eyebrow-raiser in the FAKE8 set-up.
They don’t have a separate guitarist.
For most metal bands, removing the guitar would be like removing the steering wheel from a car.
FAKE8 simply decided they’d build a different vehicle.
Chris Michael uses heavily modified bass guitars alongside complex effects processing to occupy an enormous amount of sonic territory.
Instead of the traditional division between guitar and bass, those roles become blurred.
The bass isn’t simply providing the low-end foundation.
It’s providing the wall.
Effects allow Michael to expand the instrument into something capable of producing the massive sound required by FAKE8’s compositions without needing somebody standing alongside him with a six-string.
That gives the music another layer of individuality.
You’re hearing something recognisably connected to extreme metal, but the ingredients creating that sound aren’t necessarily the ones your ears are expecting.
And that’s proper interesting.
🔥 THE CORE OF FAKE8
At the centre of everything are two musicians:
🎤 Chris Michael – Vocals / Bass
Michael handles vocals while simultaneously operating the modified bass-and-effects set-up that gives FAKE8 so much of their sonic weight.
Rather than approaching the bass as a supporting instrument, he effectively expands its responsibilities across territory traditionally occupied by both bass and guitar.
That means one instrument has to provide weight, texture, rhythm and aggression simultaneously.
No pressure then, mun.
🎷 Mika Atkinson – Saxophone
Atkinson’s role is equally crucial.
The saxophone isn’t there simply because having a sax player in an extreme-metal band looks cool — although, let’s be fair, it absolutely does.
Instead, Atkinson’s playing forms an integral part of FAKE8’s rhythmic and compositional identity.
Together, Michael and Atkinson have created an instrumental relationship that immediately separates FAKE8 from the thousands of conventional guitar-bass-drums bands competing for attention.
🥁 HOW FAKE8 WORK LIVE
Although FAKE8’s creative core is a duo, the project expands when it hits the stage.
FAKE8 perform live with a drummer.
And that’s where you can imagine these songs really beginning to breathe, kick and occasionally attempt to remove someone’s face.
With live drums underneath Michael’s colossal bass processing and Atkinson’s rhythmic saxophone work, the band’s unusual compositions gain the physical impact needed for the stage.
It’s a stripped-down line-up capable of making an extremely un-stripped-down amount of noise.
Bass.
Saxophone.
Drums.
Extreme vocals.
That’s your lot.
No army of guitarists.
No twelve people standing around pretending to play tambourines.
Just three musicians creating something that potentially sounds far bigger than the numbers suggest.
Lovely stuff.
🤘 BUILDING A FOLLOWING IN BRISBANE
Before FAKE8 packed their musical madness into the world’s largest metaphorical suitcase and headed for Britain, they began establishing themselves around Brisbane.
The band played shows throughout the area, gradually growing a following and developing their identity in front of actual audiences.
That’s an important stage for any unconventional project.
Ideas that sound brilliant in the rehearsal room don’t always survive contact with a sweaty crowd.
FAKE8’s did.
Playing live allowed the project to evolve while introducing audiences to their unusual combination of extreme music, manipulated bass and heavily integrated saxophone.
But Australia wouldn’t remain FAKE8’s home forever.
A massive move was coming.
🇬🇧 FROM BRISBANE TO MANCHESTER
FAKE8 eventually moved the project from Australia to Manchester, England.
We’re talking roughly the other side of the planet.
New country.
New scene.
New audiences.
Probably significantly worse weather.
Welcome to Britain, lads. 🌧️😂
Manchester, however, makes plenty of sense for a project determined to do things differently.
The city possesses one of Britain’s richest musical histories and has repeatedly produced, welcomed and nurtured artists willing to challenge convention.
FAKE8 might sit towards the considerably heavier end of that spectrum, but the attitude fits.
The move effectively marks the beginning of FAKE8’s UK era.
📱 BUILDING MOMENTUM ONLINE
While preparing for their next chapter, FAKE8 have also been steadily gaining attention through social media.
For an emerging band, that’s increasingly important.
For an emerging band doing something as unusual as FAKE8?
It’s potentially massive.
Heavy music fans love discovering something they haven’t heard before, and the moment you tell someone there’s an extreme-metal band built around processed bass and rhythm saxophone without a guitarist, curiosity tends to kick in.
“Hang on. What?”
Exactly.
That’s the reaction you want.
FAKE8’s unconventional set-up gives them something instantly identifiable in a scene where hundreds of new artists are battling for attention every week.
💿 NEW MUSIC IS COMING
The move to Manchester hasn’t slowed the creative machinery.
Quite the opposite.
FAKE8 are currently working on multiple EPs and singles, suggesting there’s plenty brewing behind the scenes.
That’s particularly exciting because this still feels like a project with enormous room to evolve.
When you’ve already thrown away some of metal’s most established instrumental conventions, where exactly do you go next?
That’s the fun part.
FAKE8 have created a framework where experimentation isn’t something added later.
It’s baked into the band’s DNA.
New releases can therefore push the concept further without feeling like the band are abandoning their identity.
The unpredictability is the identity.
🇬🇧🔥 FAKE8 PREPARE FOR THEIR UK LIVE DEBUT
Perhaps the most intriguing next step is FAKE8’s arrival on the British live circuit.
Following the relocation to Manchester, the band are preparing for their debut UK live shows.
And this is where things could get properly tasty.
Hearing experimental extreme music through headphones is one experience.
Watching someone generate a gigantic wall of sound from a heavily modified bass rig while a saxophonist attacks the rhythm alongside a live drummer?
That’s something you want to witness from about six feet away while wondering whether your earplugs are rated for industrial machinery.
Britain’s underground heavy scene has long provided a home for unusual, abrasive and challenging music.
FAKE8 should fit into that chaos rather nicely.
🧠 POLYRHYTHMS, POLYMETRES AND CONTROLLED CHAOS
One of the elements underpinning FAKE8’s music is its rhythmic complexity.
The band’s use of polymetric ideas means different rhythmic structures can interact simultaneously, giving the songs a constantly shifting quality.
For listeners who enjoy technical, progressive or rhythmically adventurous heavy music, that’s going to be a big part of the appeal.
But complexity alone doesn’t make something exciting.
You can write the cleverest piece of music imaginable and still produce something with all the emotional impact of an instruction manual for a microwave.
The trick is turning technical ability into something visceral.
FAKE8’s unusual instrumentation provides the opportunity to do exactly that.
The rhythmic complexity isn’t isolated from the heaviness.
It feeds it.
🎷 WHY FAKE8 STAND OUT
There are an absurd number of heavy bands releasing music right now.
That’s brilliant for listeners.
It’s also brutal for new artists.
Having technically excellent musicians isn’t necessarily enough anymore. Neither is simply being heavier, faster or more complicated than everyone else.
You need an identity.
FAKE8 already have one.
Not because they’re desperately trying to manufacture some gimmick, but because the project’s unusual instrumental configuration developed organically from the music Michael wanted to create with Atkinson.
That’s the crucial difference.
The saxophone has a purpose.
The lack of guitar has a purpose.
The modified bass has a purpose.
The rhythmic complexity has a purpose.
Everything feeds into the same musical philosophy.
🤘 WHO SHOULD CHECK OUT FAKE8?
If your musical diet involves the experimental, technical, progressive and extreme ends of heavy music, FAKE8 deserve a spot on your radar.
Likewise, anyone fascinated by unconventional instrumentation should find plenty to dig into.
This isn’t a band attempting to recreate metal from thirty years ago.
FAKE8 are interested in exploring what heavy music can become when familiar instruments are assigned unfamiliar jobs.
And whether you ultimately love the results or emerge looking slightly confused, we’d rather have bands trying something unusual than another thousand acts photocopying whatever happens to be fashionable this month.
Heavy music needs weirdos.
Always has.
Always will.
🎷💀 FAKE8 – THE STORY SO FAR
Formed: 2023
Origin: Brisbane, Australia 🇦🇺
Current Base: Manchester, England 🇬🇧
Genre: Experimental / Extreme Metal
Members: Chris Michael and Mika Atkinson
Live Format: Duo accompanied by a drummer
Chris Michael: Vocals / Modified Bass / Effects
Mika Atkinson: Saxophone
Traditional Guitarist: Absolutely bloody not. 😂
Current Activity: Working on multiple EPs and singles while preparing for UK live performances
🔥 THE RIFF REPORT VERDICT
FAKE8 are exactly the sort of emerging heavy band we love discovering at The Riff Report.
They’re weird.
They’re ambitious.
They’re heavy.
And most importantly, they’re doing things their own way.
Starting life in Brisbane before moving halfway around the world to Manchester would already make for an interesting story.
But combine that with a line-up ditching traditional guitar entirely, a bassist using modified instruments and effects to generate an enormous wall of sound, and a saxophonist whose instrument functions as a fundamental rhythmic weapon?
Now we’re cooking with napalm. 🔥
The next chapter could be the really exciting one.
With multiple releases in development, growing social-media attention and UK live shows ahead, FAKE8 have arrived in Britain with an opportunity to carve themselves a distinctive place within the underground heavy scene.
Because metal doesn’t move forward by everybody following the same blueprint.
Sometimes somebody needs to rip the blueprint up.
Sometimes somebody needs to replace the guitarist with a terrifying bass rig.
And apparently, sometimes somebody needs to bring a saxophone.
Keep FAKE8 firmly on your radar, Riffers. 🎷🤘
This could get very loud.
And very weird.
Exactly how we like it.
The Riff Report 🤘🐉
Proudly Welsh. Proudly Loud. Zero Apologies.
Supporting the bands keeping heavy music dangerous, strange and exciting.
