When an international band announces an – œAustralian tour’, it almost always goes without saying they really mean – œSydney/Melbourne/Brisbane tour’, not really taking the time to see the bigger picture of this country. That’s why when metalcore sextet Bleeding Through announced their Declaration Australian tour, it came as such a surprise that it was a tour inclusive of far more than just capital cities. The night of the 19th came the turn for the small town of Nowra, New South Wales, to experience acts that they never would have imagined making a pit stop in their area.

Warming up the slowly-gathering crowd was Melbourne band In Trenches. In spite of the band were certainly very appreciative of a warm reception so far from home, their stock-standard, breakdown-by-numbers brand of metal was incredibly dull, no matter how many various ways the vocalist posed or how many times the guitarist jumped up and down. An atrocious, muddy mix didn’t help proceedings much further for an easily forgettable set.

Next up, all the way from Los Angeles was As Blood Runs Black. Their performances was a different story entirely – relentless, aggressive and no-bullshit metalcore in the spirit of Hatebreed and Shai Hulud. The crowd, whether headbanging in unison with the guitarist’s mane or throwing down when the appropriate time arose, gave as much back as the band themselves were in terms of energy and passion. Even in the midst of a shaky line-up change (both the vocalist and lead guitarist were filling in for recently departed members), As Blood Runs Black were triumphant. Let’s hope they can keep their foundations together in order to release their sophomore record later in the year.

Between the Buried and Me only have somewhat of a small following in Australia, and their prog-metal leanings stood out like the proverbial dog’s bollocks on tonight’s line-up. Certainly an odd choice of support for a band like Bleeding Through. Still, the band performed a handful of their lengthy tracks brilliantly with what little time they had, exciting the dedicated few that were into it and completely baffling those who weren’t. Whilst it was evident that few fan conversions were made by the time they had played their last song, two things were quite clear to those in attendance that “got it”. The first was the tightness and precision of the songs performed live. Anyone who has heard the band’s latest, Colors, knows the borderline-schizophrenic diversity of the music and the degree of difficulty that lies in conveying it to a live audience, which made their work so impressive. The second was that BTBAM must come to our fair shores again in the foreseeable future on their own accord, hopefully to perform for a more appreciative crowd.

The banners were down, the crowd was packing in, the intro music sirened out and one thing was immediately clear – Bleeding Through were ready to hit the stage. Receiving a hero’s welcome, the five dudes (and one lady) wasted no time in psyching up the already easily-excitable crowd with some loud, fast and thrashing (albeit a tad formulaic) tracks, ranging from their earlier work to their latest record, Declaration. The band had the School of Arts in their palm. When vocalist Brandan Schieppati commanded that “everyone go nuts”, you better believe that there were bodies flying left, right and centre.

Up the front was a head-banging frenzy, along with many attempted mic grabs ranging from a muscly short-haired guy to a tiny teenage girl. The band were genuinely happy to be there and performing – a trait you would not expect of an international act in a small, overseas place – visibly both excited and humbled that their music had reached a global scale. This certainly made the show more enjoyable for both performer and audience, as the band shredded, screamed and commanded (circle pits and throwdowns were the order of the day) their way through an hour-plus set.

Whilst Bleeding Through didn’t have the technical proficiency of their stage-warmers BTBAM, they certainly had all the high-octane energy and well-structured heavy tracks that make shows such as these so damn fun. With any luck, Australia will get more tours like these and keep us small-town hicks occupied.