It’s hard not to feel sorry for Sydonia. Described variously as – œultra-talented’, – œepic’ and – œakin to tribal warfare’, they’ve begun to epitomise the cruel side of Australia’s music industry. Despite plenty of acclaim from the critics (occasionally sliding towards the point of gushing), a successful US tour supporting Stone Sour, and several national tours, the Melbourne-based prog metal four-piece have somehow managed to elude getting a record contract.

Their growing band of rather obsessive fans can’t seem to improve things much either. In fact, things have gotten to such a state that you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d turned up to a parish fundraiser. Walk inside the gig venue and you’ll be greeted with enslaved groupies manning a bakesale stall, an inconsolable audience pelting the stage with loose change, and band merch being auctioned off to the most crazed fan, one item being an enormous hand-painted Sydonia banner – the creation of one particularly dedicated groupie. – œGive that they may record,’ read the donations tin.

Let’s hope they do manage to scrounge enough petty change to hit the studio again, because it will be deprived metalheads across the globe that will be the losers. Sydonia’s unique brand of prog, which smashes together modern alterna-rock and crossover prog with primordial groove metal and bombastic percussion, is something special. In a world of blastbeat-obsessed meatheads, it’s quite possibly the breath of fresh air that metal needs.

Much like the rest of their career, though, the Sydonia sound is something of a tease. Their debut album, Given to Destroyers, vacillates between pop rock hooks, proggy arrangements which teleport you to places previously only known to junkies, and balls-to-the-wall modern metal. It’s solid, well produced and an interesting listen, but somehow they manage to touch a number of exciting elements without really letting loose. You just get the feeling they’re capable of so much more.

The promos for this gig promised the debut of new material. It was with this expectation that a crowd nearing 200 gathered, curious to see what new creations an already fascinating band could deliver. Even the most insipid onlooker can’t complain about value for money at a Sydonia show.

It’s clear from the outset that this is a professional outfit. The support bands, even for their smallest shows, are surprisingly proud stock. The sound and lighting – often against overwhelming odds in dingy, poorly endowed venues – consistently reach a standard usually expected of major touring artists, even when minimal equipment is at hand. Their unique use of percussion – which culminates in as many as four band members hammering away on toms, cymbals and other noisy things – adds to the stage drama.

The eerie vocals of Dana Roskvist, key to the band’s trademark sound, are scarcely off the money. Spanning soaring, ethereal melodies to all out growling, there’s little difference between the man on tape and his performance in-person. Sam Haycroft gushes with visceral energy on guitars, creating walls of sound which bring both polish and raw heaviness. But the standout player in this band is, without doubt, drummer Sean Bailey. Exciting, intense and a constant source of complex rhythms and mosh-worthy grooves, this is one talented man.

These things, though, are part-and-parcel of a Sydonia gig. The question we were all asking was: what will the new album sound like? Well, we got a taste. Two songs, to be exact. Shame is a fast-paced, alterna-rock riot, with a slight post-hardcore edge and lashings of rapping from Roskvist. Words is a raw, heavy, and somewhat lengthy rocker which manages to fuse modern Brit rock and nu-metal in a surprisingly coherent
way.

The band has commented in recent interviews that they put particular emphasis on creating progressive tracks with more hooks and more elaborate arrangements. This is immediately apparent – Shame is packed with hooky motifs and phrases, while both tracks have a well-developed level of instrumental interplay. Despite this, somehow the band manage to miss the mark on all counts. There’s a prog ethic to the songs, but they stop short of being truly progressive by being somewhat simple and at times repetitive. There’s hooks there, but they lack the lyrical substance and melodic foundations to be truly memorable.

Sydonia are a band who have found their sound but are in the process of synthesising their style into a product which really reflects their level of talent. After a mere thirty minutes, with a word in the ear from the stage god above to the men onstage, the band promptly completed their set, were whisked off stage, and the audience suppressed from any further hero worship with hurriedly raised house lights and blaring exit music.

And so, at the end of the show, there I was – like a testosterone-fuelled adolescent – teased yet again, slightly disappointed, yet hungry as ever for more. And wild with the thought that the next time might just end up going all the way.

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE GIG HERE