“If you want something in life, you’ve just got to put your mind to it. Try, try and try again. It’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to be quick. There are so many resources now.”

Sabian Lynch is the guitarist and songwriter for Alpha Wolf - a metalcore band from Burnie. They make hard-listening simple with their uncanny knack to scream the truth at just the right freak-uency. Three quarter of a million monthly Spotify streams can’t be wrong. Sabian is a proud Burnie expat who will never forget his days on Devon Street (South Burnie.) He wrote a song about it.

“I grew up a big nerd into Pokémon cards and all that,” he says. “Something about transitioning from primary to high school, I felt like I had to put that in the past and become a man. I regret doing all that now because I’ve found a new love for all things nerdy. I wish I held onto everything from back then.”

The Wynyard High graduate says he was scared of getting bullied.

“I thought I just had to be a cool guy to fit in. It’s a rocky road I guess. High school itself is just rough for anyone who’s into nerd stuff.”

Sabian’s music account opened with a guitar from legendary second-hand emporium Save A Buck. He kicked off his first band - Esoteric Law.

“We were pretty awful. They ended up kicking me out because I wanted them to be a heavy band and they wanted to be soft rock.”

This wasn’t before they participated in Rock Challenge, Sabian’s first taste of a live show and an introduction to other local bands. The scene converged at the scuzzy melting pot of Hellyer College. Sabian formed his first ‘heavy’ band Anguish with bass player John Arnold and spent a few years touring locally. The pair went onto become metalcore specialists Alpha Wolf.

“We haven’t stopped grinding, almost fifteen years on,” he says.

Sabian credits Hellyer College as the best place to “try shit out.”

“For what we do you’ve got to really find like-minded people that are willing to drop everything and give it a red hot go. That’s been our mindset this whole time. We’ll work really shitty jobs to pay off anything we’re trying to do musically. Luckily it’s got to a point now where we’ve found some success and it all pays for itself.”

Alpha Wolf recently played the Slipknot curated Knotfest where Sabian got to meet his teenage heroes, Parkway Drive. He told them how he first saw them play in, of all places, Lapoinya (out the back of Burnie’s twin-town Wynyard).

“They all laughed and said they remember it as the worst show they’ve ever played in their lives. They always make jokes, if they play a bad show they say ‘at least it’s not Lapoinya again.’”