Melbourne progressive death metal heavyweights, Ne Obliviscaris, return to Perth in support of their new album ‘Urn’. Touring Australia and New Zealand with Melbourne progressive powerhouse, Circles, and other local supporting acts along the way. The epic six-piece unstoppable force of metal meets gorgeous violin work came to show us who the true masters of the stage are.
Perth’s very own Deadspace prepared us for damnation as the openers for the night and were the local support act. The notorious ambient black metal band didn’t hold back, coming out on stage with both guitarists wearing fluorescent spandex, to change things up from traditional black metal style. Playing a range of tracks from their arsenal including songs from their latest album, The Liquid Sky. The energy given off to the crowd from the indefatigable virtuoso’s playing with such vigour amping up the fans and getting the heads of many banging. Front man Chris Gebauer, in fine form, had crowd interacting on another level, jumping down off stage to mosh with fellow friends and fans and including guest vocals from members of the crowd. Deadspace truly set the stages for the night and slaughtered their set as a brilliant musical collective.
After a short intermission Circles came to us with a comprehensively different overture, showering us with their progressive style and velvety clean vocals perfectly paired with the unforgiving growls from bassist, Andrew Patton. Starting their set with the more delicate approach but promptly began to project a barrage of merciless breakdowns and ruthless guitar riffs, maintaining the constant oscillation of heads in the crowd. Their softer, yet indubitably crushing, diverse style made them an excellent bridge for the up and coming feature presentation. The fans couldn’t get enough and before long the mosh pit packed with metal enthusiasts frothing for more. The intricacy and precision of the band along with the emotional lyrics and rock elements make these guys in a class of their own. Spawning forth an all new, yet still acclimatised, unique sound of progressive astonishment.
The maestro’s themselves, Ne Obliviscaris emerge onto the dimly lit stage at Jack Rabbit Slims as they prepare to blow the minds of the mass hoards of metal crazed devotees who stand before them eagerly awaiting fulfilment. The beers are cold, the hair is out, and the eardrums are beginning to twitch as the first notes of Tim’s violin are working their way through the nervous system of each and everybody in the vicinity of the venue. The hairs on the back of your neck stand on end and then suddenly… the rolling thunder of the drums blast through and every pleasure sensor in the human body is running rampant and you can’t help but bang your head like a mad man in a padded cell. Yes, this is exactly how it feels to witness such brutality, beauty and grace in it’s purest form. Playing an hour long set of some of the finest musical material to come out of Australia Ne Obliviscaris are truly one of the greatest live performances in the world of metal, and it’s no surprise to anyone why they are as successful as they are.
The tracks they laid down on this fateful night were executed flawlessly. Sounding just as good, if not better live as they do on album, playing their tracks with absolute precision while still maintaining an amazing connection with the crowd. As they treated the fans to a plethora of old and new songs including masterpieces such as ‘Intra Venus’, which is definitely a fan favourite, we gazed upon them in awe witnessing the talent flow from the stage. The technicality of the guitar riffs and the insane bass tapping skills of Martino Garattoni matching perfectly with the violin scales and hypnotising clean vocals of front man, Tim Charles, and then to top it all off smashing the ferocious death growls of vocalist, Xenoyr Campbell, in the mix. It was definitely a match made in Hell and a mind-blowing experience.
During the show they announced that it was guitarist, Benjamin Baret’s birthday and the crowd chanted “happy birthday” as they carried out a small birthday cake and placed it upon his crown before they played their last few songs of the night. This show was the end of their Australian/New Zealand tour and they put every inch of effort into making it a brilliant one. Having a band of this calibre and talent come right out of our backyard makes me, and I’m sure all of us, proud to be an Aussie. A night filled with exceptional bands and musicians is one that’ll be with us until the end of days.
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Tammie Molotov – Molotov Enterprises & Photography
