Words – Clare
Photos – Mitch
Thursday night EM headed to the Prince Bandroom in St Kilda for the Gatecreeper tour with performances by Kruelty and World of Joy. As entertaining as the previous night was with Bring Me the Horizons sensory overload at John Cain Arena, I was definitely looking forward to being cloaked in darkness, obliterated by some dank and doomy death metal. What can I say? It just speaks to my goddamned soul.
As I ascended the stairs inside The Prince Hotel I heard the blasting death metal of Gutless who joined the tour as the local support for the Melbourne leg of the tour. Like a moth to a flame, I led myself straight to the front to cop a face full. Gutless received multiple shoutouts from the tour lineup. I spotted members of Kruelty watching from the sidelines, nodding in approval.
As World of Joy took the stage, the room filled with more bodies, but space was purposefully left on the floor for the psycho crowd killers. The five-piece hardcore band from Brisbane produced a massively entertaining set. The stage was open to all, two steppers taking turns, stepping up to launch themselves into the crowd. Fun was had by all.
By the time Kruelty came out the room was at full capacity, one mosher launched off the stage as Kruelty launched into a face melting set. Between the guttural growls, the vocalist addressed the mob of fans in his thick Japanese accent, ‘We are all the way here from Tokyo. Show us something crazy’. The chugginess and the proficiently curated tempo changes were particularly satisfying. ‘If you’re going more, you’re gonna be mad cunt. If you’re going less you’re gonna be a shit cunt’.
Gatecreeper, all the way from Phoenix Arizona, were headlining this tour and with the old-school metal vibes they were exuding it made sense they invited all the headbangers to the front ‘Headbangers…. Report for duty’ in order to close the gap that had previously been carved out for the hardcore kids. One beastly guitarist loomed over the crowd, death staring as he enjoined the fans to ignite a circle pit, before the entire band headbanged in unison. The pit erupted for Craving Flesh from 2016’s Sonoran Depravation and From the Ashes released in 2019 was dedicated to all the first-timers in the audience. After playing the track The Black Curtain, released just this year on the album of the same name, they performed Oblivion which has yet to be released online. Before finishing up the set Gatecreeper assured us they’ll be back again soon. Not hating that.
Thanks to the Prince Bandroom crew for having us and a special thanks to Lochlan Watt for arranging media access.
EVERYDAY METAL – SUPPORT LOCAL HEAVY METAL
