Review & Photos – @photo.amai
It is an absolute scorcher in Melbourne with the day peaking in the 40s. This didn’t deter the metal diehards from coming out to get their faces melted even further by Canadian Technical Death Metal maniacs ARCHSPIRE.
This is one hell of a stacked line-up of death metal destruction featuring New Zealand’s Organectomy and Aborted.
Hailing from Christchurch, Organectomy very quickly introduced The Croxton bandroom to their own brand of slamming brutal death metal.
From the opening track I immediately liked this band, energetic riffs accentuated by vocals that reach piercing highs and drop into gutturals so churning Satan himself would tip his hat.
‘Thanks for joining us on the is winters night‘ sarcastically growled vocalist Alex.
As they blasted through their set, you couldn’t help but notice the consistent headbanging across the room. Being the opening band is no small task, but they managed it with ease.
To say I was excited to see Aborted would be an understatement; it had been 8 years since they were last on our shores, and they certainly made up for lost time. With a catalogue stretching back to 1995, who knows what tracks we would be treated to tonight?
Opening with Deadbringer and rolling into Retrogore is a furious start. Founding member and absolute vocal monster Sven wasted no time whipping the crowd into a frenzy, ordering the first wall of death of the evening.
‘You know that crowd surfing is right? I spoke to the security earlier, and they are bored on this summer’s night; there are only two guys here, let’s make them sweat‘. Aborted, launched into their track Brotherhood Of Sleep. We were further treated to tracks Origin of Disease and Infinite Terror.
‘It’s a pleasure to be back in a country where I can say cunt’
‘I have adhd, I’m a spicy boy that forgets shit, so it’s time for the first wall of death of the evening!, Open that shit up’
‘The last few years, there has been some crazy shit going on, none of that matters, what matters is we are all here as one family, so let’s have a party’ closing the set out with Darude – Sandstorm
Archspire are one of those bands that pride themselves on extremes, touting themselves as the fastest band on earth, something droves of fans were keen to experience.
Opening with Bleed The Future, they wasted no time flexing their skills. Vocalist Oliver asked the crowd to open up the bit for a wall of death, the difference being that they wanted circumcised people on one side and uncircumcised on the other; the uncircumcised were much stronger in number.
It’s a hilarious contrast to see a band playing brutal technical death metal while wearing colourful board shorts and shooting bubbles into the crowd.
The band took a short break to bring two lucky people on stage to do a Shoey, but with a twist, they added a spoonful of Vegemite for good measure.
Unlike Aborted and their second wall of death, Archspire opened the pit up one more time so the audience could join a friendly game of Twister, playing their final and crowd favourite track, Drone Corpse Aviator.
A huge thanks goes out to the Croxton crew, Organectomy, Aborted, Archspire and Cult Ettiquette for having us!
