Superheist are an Australian nu metal band formed in 1993 by mainstay guitarist and backing vocalist DW Norton.

[5] Pentecost was a mutual friend who worked at a local music store,[5] Frankston Guitar Village, and had previously played with Norton, Mcleod and Sudborough in the alt rock band Big Pop Monsters.

[7] In 1994 they issued a five-track extended play cassette, Apocalypse, which was recorded at Backbeach Studios in Rye, Victoria with Norton producing and released independently; it was later distributed via Warhead records,[8][9] The band's early style was grindcore,[4] à la Napalm Death, with synthesiser tones, samples and clean vocals amongst brutal blast beats and death growls.

In September 1997, the band signed to Melbourne's Shock Records' subsidiary label Cutthroat and released a five-track EP, Chrome Matrix.

Local Melbourne artist Barney "Barnaby Butters" Hughes (deceased) joined the group on bass guitar for several live shows.

Chris Ainsworth (Back Beach Studios' owner Mark Rachelle's friend) temporarily provided keyboards and samples while Sabawi travelled overseas.

Also in 1998 Superheist announced Simon "Si" Durrant, of In:Extremis, as the band's bass guitarist replacing Donath, who never regained his full playing ability.

[5] In June 1999 Superheist toured nationally backing Sepultura,[5] Durrant caused hundreds of dollars of damagein a hotel room in Brisbane.

The group supported the Screaming Jets, returned to Canberra for Metal for the Brainh and a handful of local and east coast shows.

The track "Pulse" received airplay on Triple J and was included on a various artists' compilation album, Full Metal Racket.

8 Miles High tracks made an impact on the Australian alternative charts, "Pulse", "Two-Faced", "Karma" and "Have Your Way" received significant airplay.

[18] In March of the following year, a Shock Records representative claimed they had spent $250–300,000 on it and despite sales approaching 35,000 units they were short of covering expenses.

In a meeting with management, McLeod stated he would "only play the big shows and the band would be dropped by the record company should he decide to leave"[citation needed].

[4][5][6] In the following year, Bridget Porich of Ozmusic Central reflected on the transition, "the vocal similarity is quite outstanding and few bands manage to sustain the same amount of talent, success and fans after the change of a lead man.

"[20] In 2002 Superheist played several major festivals in Australia including a main stage slot on the Big Day Out in Gold Coast,[21] Sydney,[22] Melbourne,[23] Adelaide and Perth in January–February.

[26] Sean Kemp of Oz Music Project described their set, "Biro (Vocals) does it better than previous front man [McLeod].

Dedman quit the band that night and returned to his home in northern NSW refusing to speak to other members for months of 2003.

They played shows at the Viper Room, the Roxy and several showcases but were unable to sign a major international record deal.

[1][5][14] Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane described them as "Melbourne's premier nu metal act for 10 years... [with an] extreme down-turned sound.

"[1] He praised Biro on their second album, "who didn't incorporate rap into his vocal delviery", while the group delivered "cleaner (yet still heavy) alternative metal sound".

[1] Greg Lawrence of Worldwide Home of Australasian Music and More Online (WHAMMO) had described McLeod as a "lyric writer and vocalist", who "likes to party hard but who works at his craft with determination".

Norton added a non-band track, "The Road", which was written with Cam Baines (of Bodyjar) and Phil Rose (ex-Nursery Crimes).

[28] Drew Dedman formed an improvised jazz band, the Lounge Machine in 2004 and played with Melbourne drum and bass act K-Oscillate in 2005–2006.

In 2006 Dedman and Norton started preparing new tracks with Matt "Skitz" Sanders from Damaged on drums, Pentecost had injured his leg and was unable to commit to recording.

Another attempt at reformation of Superheist occurred in 2008 with Biro, Dedman, Norton and Pentecost rehearsing old work and jamming new material.

In 2012 all five members of the Identical Remote Controlled Reactions line-up met at Norton's bar (Whole Lotta Love) in Melbourne, but once again no reformation occurred.

Dedman has played with experimental electronic band XXIII and in late 2015 he joined Melbourne rocker group, the Arcane Saints.

[32][33] Joining Dedman and Norton were former Electrik Dynamite drummer Benny Clark as Pentecost was unable to rejoin for personal reasons.

In April 2019 the line up of Durrant, Gotcher, Norton, Ox and Sankey undertook the inaugural HeistFest tour of Australia with Alaskan metalcore band, 36 Crazyfists.

[36][37] In December 2020, Superheist's social media revealed a song, "Medicated", before removing it several hours later, and announced that their next album MMXX was expected in February 2021.