I had awaited this festival with baited breath, getting more and more excited the closer it got. It wasn’t because there were great bands on the bill (there were) but because it’s not often that we get to see such a great group of bands on the one night. It was also because people in the Eastern states had sent me emails telling me how brutal it was, and that they were still reverberating from the show long afterwards, mainly because of the speed and intensity of the drummers on offer.
The show at Fowler’s started incredibly early. The doors were slated to open at 7 pm, and they did; but the first band, local black metallers Beyond Mortal Dreams took the stage at 7.05 pm, and played a very short set (25 mins). While this is barely enough time for the band to warm up – and for the crowd to warm up to them! – they played a great set, as always. The biggest shame about it was that most people turned up much later than 7 pm, so they would have missed this set. Beyond Mortal play brooding waves of black metal that is dark and brutal, and their set at this show was a great snippet of their work because when they play, they play hard, and even for a short set the audience is rarely disappointed.
They were followed very quickly by Ukrainians Fleshgore. What a set! What a band! They played a type of hardcore that could really only be described as grindcore-core: grind with hardcore overtones. If you are not a hardcore fan but like your metal brutal, this band is absolutely for you. These young dudes were incredibly energetic, and played a full-on set that really started to wind the crowd up. It is so rare for us here in Adelaide to be able to see bands from Eastern Europe, that look so Eastern European for a start!, and it was such a treat. Well done, fellas, it was an awesome set and a great introduction (for me, at least) to your work. I hope they come back to us soon, despite the 26-hour flight it took them to get there!
Sydneysiders The Amenta came tripping along on the heels of Fleshgore, all in black shirts and painted black. Some galah in the crowd yelled out ‘it’s Yothu Yindi!’ to general mirth. But how far from that can you get! The Amenta play brooding hate-death-metal, with a strength and an intensity that is awesome. Although we didn’t quite have a ‘slam pit’ that would have pleased their vocalist, who hasn’t seen one to satisfy him in any of the Festival of the Dead shows, and who is hoping the Perth show will kick the rest of Australia’s arse, the punters were nontheless showing their appreciation by banging their heads – hard.
By now the venue had started to gain quite a crowd, and it really started to pick up with the set played by The Amenta. The crowd for this show wasn’t huge, but there were a surprising number of under-18s that were present. It’s great to see so many young people getting into extreme metal brutality.
It’s hard to say who the stars of the show were, Londoners Akercocke, or The Berzerker. Perhaps they could both the slotted into that spot, given the way the crowd reacted to each set.
If you haven’t heard Akercocke, you need to. They play a slightly off-tap, grimy, British satanic blackened death metal that is both unique and amazing. After hearing their latest album Antichrist I was literally hopping with impatience to see them, and it was so f-king good. This band are amazing recorded, and f-king brilliant live. The band’s dynamics on stage are great, and frontman Jason is a natural with the crowd, which responded with a tireless mosh and straining horns held aloft. The Akercocke set was a fitting way to promote their new release, and although they weren’t able to play an encore (much to the disappointment of many of us), they left a strong impression.
After a slightly longer break, The Berzerker took to the stage with their incredibly heavy, intense, industrial death metal, and played a longer set, as befitted the last band. Although their music is fast and intense, it wasn’t quite enough for some—who yelled out ‘play something fast you c-nts!’ Rather than the irritation response that this galah got from The Amenta, the frontman for The Berzerker turned around and said ‘who said that?’ Upon identifying the culprit, he said promised to meet the challenge: and they did. At 305 bpm! And turned around afterwards With satisfaction, stating: ‘playing faster is no problem for us !’ The Berzerker made the crowd go berzerk. I personally hadn’t seen them for years, and they were so f-kng much better than I remember.
The typical sound problems that we seem to see in Adelaide amazingly didn’t dog this show, until The Berzerker’s set when microphone problems and bass guitar problems caused some irritation for the band. However, these were sorted out as the set went on, and by the time The Berzerker played an encore (yes – there was time for an encore!) it was in the past.
Two of the best things about this show (aside from the bands, which were all fantastic) were the cheap merchandise (festival shirts retailing for $15!) and the fact that the bands headed pretty well straight for the merch table once they’d finished their sets. Unlike many international bands who tend to hang out backstage for the remainder of the show, and don’t make so much as a peek of an appearance, all the bands on this bill were accessible to the fans, signing releases, talking to people, and generally being excited to be there.
The Festival of the Dead was brilliant, and if you missed it, then you really fucking missed out. It is rare to get four bands of this quality, and this standing internationally, on the same bill on tour in Australia, to play so goddamn well, and to be so happily accessible to the punters. Atrocity Productions, the promoters of this show, need to be congratulated because it really was fantastic. I hope that each of these bands tours again soon, because the short sets could really only give us a taste of what we could expect from a full-length show from each.
