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It was a sea of black tshirts, laced-up boots and long hair that turned out for Perth metal band Voyager’s video launch. There really is no better venue than Amps for a gig like this, which is about the god damn music and nothing else. And after successful stints over the years in Europe, there is nowhere more fitting to launch the Lost videoclip than right at home in the heart of Perth city.

While support bands often face the trying task of performing to a near empty room, local metalheads Lacrymae had a sweet little crowd to front. Theirs is a brand of effortless metal – they may it look so goshdarn easy. Although the punters were a bit too cool to really get into to it (maybe it was too early?) they showed a headbanging appreciation for The Hallowed Design. The melodic vocals of Agostino and Francesco Piscitelli were divine; its choir boys gone bad and it rocks. But, while Agostino serves the dual purpose of smashing out the keys, Francesco’s dancing-in-front-of-the-mic antics made him seem almost redundant. But he certainly is a character, which is more than can be said for some of the band.

The tiny Amps stage was cramped with the six Lacrymae members – rhythm guitarist Simone Dow was squashed into one corner, while Teague Paton on lead guitar had more room to perform a decent solo or two. Tyron Bayliss’ drumming wasn’t exactly breakthrough, but all those double kicks certainly had him working hard. Closing with Handel’s Apocalypse, you can tell that Lacrymae are enthusiastic about their music – their enjoyment of it was probably the best thing about the performance. It just seemed a little lacking. There were none of the wickedly fun theatrics that you expect from balls-out metal. But maybe that’s just a Perth thing, and maybe it’s a good thing? All-in-all, Lacrymae is something that Perth needs more of: Tight. Envigorating. And hair.

Eleventh He Reaches London had a slightly wider appeal. Their screamo-territory music aims high, and for the most part it gets there. It was a more subdued sound than the stylings of Lacrymae, but the songs build incredibly well. Boy, do these guys know how to crescendo! Its easy to see how Eleventh He Reaches London have become popular enough to draw the crowd that they did – their songs have a distinct pattern, combine an intriguing mix of sounds and present totally relatable ideas. The perfect example of this, Swarming, was met with angsty love from punters. It was reminiscent of sly and sexy Placebo, but edgier and deliciously raw.

However, it was a little disappointing that the boys weren’t exactly the tightest hard rockers around. And Ian Mountain’s good looks aren’t enough to make up for being caught checking his place on fellow guitarists Jayden Wrrts and Jeremy Martin. On a positive note, Mark Donaldson is joy to watch on drums; drummers need to perform too, you know, and Donaldson does it well. On an even more positive note for the ladies: when Mountain gets into those throat-testing screams, his tongue stretches a ridiculous distance out of his mouth. Happy days…

By the time Voyager’s crew starting set up all sorts of odd equipment, Amps’ back room was chock full as usual and buzzing – until, finally, the main event. The Lost video is dark, dangerous and bizarrely alluring – what with all the black binary vomiting scenes. It is sci-fi metal meets cult-gore flick, and what it lacks in sense it makes up for in awesomeness.

Yes, awesomeness.

The clearly Matrix inspired video could easily play as the theme song to the (god forbid) next Matrix movie and Voyager’s video clip would go one to become one of those classic movie-videoclips – like Aerosmith’s Don’t Wanna Close My Eyes for Armageddon, only with much more street cred. The band look fantastic and oh-so-professional in the clip just as in real life, even though it did not do a shred of justice for Daniel Estrin’s wonderfully manic live performance.

Voyager followed the launch with a set of their electro-metal goodness to a crowd of raving fans. For those who haven’t seen Voyager live before, it’s infectious and more fun than you might expect. In today’s far too genre-happy culture, they are one of the few bands who may have actually pegged a category of their own: “Metal to Put a Smile on Your Face.”

Estrin’s keys certainly add a whole other element to traditional metal, but it’s their showmanship that truly sets Voyager apart from their supports. Introducing Common Ground with the challenge “Are you ready to headbang?” Estrin set the hell bent tone for the night.

The punters’ reaction to each and every song made it impossible to pick the favourite, but Devil In Me was amongst the contenders. Let’s put it this way: you know you are watching pure talent when Estrin and bassist Alex Canion play to perfection while slapping each other in the face. The chemistry between all the Voyagers and the Voyagerette is tantalising and makes them all the more wonderful to watch.

Guitarist Chris Hanssen is a pocket rocket – working his front corner of the stage like a shredding madman. He also may very well be the reason for the large contingent of female metal appreciators, but that is all just speculation…

The night’s highlight came in the form of The Best. Medley. Ever. Somehow, Voyager managed to concoct something both wonderfully nostalgic, yet still relevant. They twisted old school faves into a loud, raging, metal mashup – including, but not limited to, the theme songs from Power Rangers, Home and Away, Blue Heelers as well as a bit of ACDC’s Thunderstruck and some Reign In Blood thrown in for good measure.

Needless to say, it nearly blew the roof off. But that also could be attributed to the fact that the entire band’s sound levels had been pushed up ridiculously high. Yeah, it’s a metal gig, but the Amps back room is not the biggest acoustic space in the world, so there was no need to create a wall of sound that would resound easily at the Showgrounds.

Song of the evening, Lost was commercially the best of the set, but that is not to take anything from the likes of Higher Existence which was lapped up by metalheads who were flailing around in spastic fits of delirium. Considering that they had only managed some fixed-to-the-spot headbanging for the two opening bands, Voyager proved to be a revelation.

The closing song I Am the ReVolution pulled out the last minute showstoppers. Estrin got just that little bit crazier by cranking out a racecar red keytar and the (s)excellently beefy Mark Boeijen nearly drummed himself to death, in a good way.

If your ears weren’t ringing on Saturday morning, then you were at the wrong gig.

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