Twelve Foot Ninja
Twelve Foot Ninja | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Melbourne, VIC |
| Genres | Progressive rock and metal, nu-metal, funk metal |
| Years active | 2008 - present |
| Labels | Volkanik |
| Website | http://www.twelvefootninja.com |
| Members | Nik Barker, Rohan Hayes, Steve Mackay, Dave DeVent, Shane Russell |
| Past members | Damon McKinnon |
Band Members
- Current Line-Up
- Nik "Kin Etik" Barker (vocals)
- Rohan Hayes (guitar)
- Steve Mackay (guitar)
- Dave DeVent (bass)
- Shane Russell (drums)
- Former members
- Damon McKinnon (bass) 2008 - 2019
Band Information
Twelve Foot Ninja is a Melbourne band with a progressive approach that combines rock and metal with funk, reggae and other influences, offered described as being similar to late-period Faith No More. The band's first EP New Dawn gained popularity after the track "Dark Passenger" scored high rotation on Triple J. Later in 2008, they toured with Mammal and appeared at the Pyramid Rock Festival. 2010's Smoke Bomb EP was also a moderate success, with Twelve Foot Ninja playing at Sydney's Come Together Festival the same year. Numerous support slots followed including 2011 tours with Periphery and Tesseract and Thousand Needles in Red. A twenty-date national tour with Dead Letter Circus and Fair to Midland followed in mid-2012. Rohan Hayes joined Twelve Foot Ninja at this point.
The band's first album was preceded by a twelve-week campaign beginning in August, dubbed Project 12, that saw each track released digitally per week, accompanied by a comic drawn by UK artist Keith Draws, developing Steve Mackay's original ninja storyline. In July 2013, Twelve Foot Ninja supported Fear Factory nationally before heading out on their own headlining tour followed up by US shows with Dead Letter Circus and Periphery. Mid-2014 they headlined a US tour and closed the year with another US jaunt opening for In This Moment.
Outlier was released in August 2016 and peaked at #6 on the ARIA Albums chart and #3 on Billboard's Heatseeker chart. Twelve Foot Ninja then supported Disturbed on an Australian tour, then spent the following year touring throughout the UK, Europe and Asia where they played shows in India and Nepal. In 2019 Twelve Foot Ninja featured at the Download Festival in Melbourne and Sydney and bassist Damon McKinnon left the band during the year.
Twelve Foot Ninja teased their next album with three singles during 2021, the third of which, Over and Out featured Jinjer vocalist Tatiana Shmailyuk. The album Vengeance was released in October along with a 1000-page novel based on the band's over-arcing concept. Vengeance reached #20 nationally. A short time later they were named to appear at the 2022 Uncaged Festival and at the same time Kin Etik announced he would be leaving Twelve Foot Ninja at the end of 2022.
Discography
Albums:
| 2012 | Silent Machine | Volkanik |
| 2016 | Outlier | Volkanik |
| 2021 | Vengeance | Volkanik |
EPs:
| 2008 | New Dawn | Independent |
| 2010 | Smoke Bomb | Independent |