Polaris Return with ‘Without You’, Their First New Music Since the Loss of Ryan Siew

Band News

Australian metalcore band Polaris have returned with “Without You,” their first new music in three years and a deeply personal response to the loss of guitarist Ryan Siew.

Released through SharpTone Records, the single arrives three years after Fatalism and represents much more than the beginning of another release cycle. It is the first time Polaris have turned the grief surrounding Siew’s death into new music.

For a band that chose to continue after losing one of its closest friends and creative forces, “Without You” feels like the point where survival begins to turn into a new chapter.

Turning grief into music

Ryan Siew died in June 2023 at the age of 26, shortly before the release of Polaris’ third album Fatalism.

The album had already been completed, leaving the band in an almost impossible position. They had a new record ready to enter the world while simultaneously dealing with the death of someone who had helped create it.

Polaris ultimately decided to continue. “Without You” is the first new material to emerge from everything that followed. The band describes the song as something they never imagined they would have a reason to write. Three years later, they are still processing what happened and what it means to move forward without Siew.

“This is the sound of crushing loss, shock, grief and heartache,” Polaris explain, describing the track as the beginning of learning how to share those emotions with the outside world.

That context makes “Without You” difficult to separate from the circumstances behind it. The technical precision and heaviness associated with Polaris remain, but this time they carry a different kind of weight.

The first chapter after ‘Fatalism’

There is an important distinction between Fatalism and “Without You.” Fatalism became inseparably connected to Siew’s death after its release, but it was created while he was still part of the band. “Without You” is the first Polaris song written from the other side of that loss. That makes the single a genuine creative turning point.

Since 2023, Polaris have continued touring and gradually learned how the band can exist without one of its key members. Guitarist Jesse Crofts has joined them on stage, allowing Polaris to keep performing while the core band navigated what came next. There was no immediate rush into another album.

Instead, “Without You” arrives after three years in which the band have had to work out not only what they want Polaris to sound like, but what Polaris actually means without Siew.

The answer is still developing. For now, the new single shows that moving forward doesn’t require leaving him behind.

Back on European stages with I Prevail

The timing of the release also puts Polaris immediately back into focus for European audiences.

Later this month, the band begin an extensive UK and European run supporting I Prevail, taking them through some of the largest venues Polaris have played on this side of the world.

After a series of UK dates, the continental run begins at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels on September 30.

One day later, Polaris play 013 in Tilburg, followed by two German arena dates at PSD Bank Dome in Düsseldorf on October 3 and Porsche-Arena in Stuttgart on October 5.

The tour then continues through France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Poland before reaching Berlin’s Velodrom on October 13.

Polaris with I Prevail, European dates

September 30: Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium
October 1: 013, Tilburg, Netherlands
October 3: PSD Bank Dome, Düsseldorf, Germany
October 5: Porsche-Arena, Stuttgart, Germany
October 6: Zenith Paris, Paris, France
October 8: Halle 622, Zürich, Switzerland
October 9: Alcatraz, Milan, Italy
October 10: Wiener Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria
October 12: Klub Stodoła, Warsaw, Poland
October 13: Velodrom, Berlin, Germany

For Polaris, these shows will put “Without You” into an entirely different context. A song created from private and collective grief now has to become part of the band’s live world, shared with rooms containing thousands of people.

Moving forward without moving on

Heavy music has no shortage of songs dealing with grief, but “Without You” carries the uncomfortable reality of coming from a band still living through the event behind it.

Ryan Siew remains part of Polaris’ history, their sound and the records that established them as one of Australia’s leading modern metalcore bands. Continuing without him inevitably changes what the band is.

“Without You” doesn’t attempt to hide that change. Instead, Polaris have made it the centre of their return. Three years after Fatalism, the band are finally creating music from a place they never expected to occupy. What follows from here, whether that eventually becomes another album or something else, is still open. But “Without You” establishes the starting point. Polaris are moving forward. And they are doing it without pretending that moving forward means moving on.