Brisbane was home to the final show of the The Painted Progression tour which featured an incredible lineup of some of prog metal’s most valued acts coming from not only Australia but from the US and Canada too including Ne Obliviscaris, Caligula’s Horse, Beyond Creation, Allegaeon and Rivers Of Nihil. Our resident metal reporter Steve Monaghan made the trek to Queensland for this massive show.
Tonight saw the final show of the “Painted Progression” tour at The Triffid in Brisbane bringing together some of North America and Australia’s tech death progressive metal luminaries in the form of Rivers of Nihil, Allgaeon, Beyond Creation, Caligulas Horse and Ne Obliviscaris. To set the scene for you, the venue reminded me of a large aeroplane hangar with expansive gymnasium style wooden floor and for a Sunday night it was fairly packed out with the acoustics inside the club sounding great.
The first band to take to the stage were US tech death crew Rivers of Nihil with very little fanfare apart from the obligatory “Hello Brisbane“. The band were ready to level everything kicking off proceedings with a solid “Death Is Real”, the energy and enthusiasm was infectious and really got the crowd involved as much as possible. Other standout tracks included “Where Owls Know My Name” and set closer “The Silent Life”. It was a flawless set that was cohesive and flowed effortlessly and before we knew it, the set was over.
Next up – Allegaeon. This was a complete power house in every sense of the word, taking a vast majority of tracks from this year’s excellent album “Apoptosis”. Kicking off with “Stellar Tidal Disruption”, lead singer Riley McShane looked as if he was a man on top of the world with vocals that came from the pits of hell and rhythm guitarist Michael Stancel was flawless. The crowd by this point were well and truly warmed up.
Next up to the stage was Canadian tech death head Beyond Creation, these Canuck’s were on point from the moment they stepped on stage with the fret board wizardry on display here simply mind boggling. Taking shots from this year’s album “Algorythm”, stand out tracks from the set included “The Afterlife” and “Ethereal Kingdom”. Watching the drummer Philippe Boucher was also a definite highlight, making drum fills and rolls look effortless. This set proved time after time why these guys are at the pinnacle of technical death metal, simply put, awe inspiring.
Next up Caligula’s Horse took to the plate and these guys were the band of the night for me. Hometown heroes with music that transcend time and space, I know this is a large call but the vocal range of lead singer Jim Grey was breath taking. I’d go as far as to say I may have found my new favorite band, the sound reminded me of Perth crew Karnivool with more technical/ progressive elements. Stand outs included “Bloom” and “Daughter of the Mountain”. In the words of Molly Meldrum “do yourself a favor and go out…no, run out and see these guys, you can thank me later.”
Now for the main event and in all my life I’ve NEVER seen anything like these guys. I speak of course about Ne Obliviscaris, a Melbourne band with endless talents combining clean and death metal vocals as well as symphonic elements with the use of a violin for a majority of the set. Taking a large slice of the set from the 2017 album “Urn”, a perfect illustration of the sheer power of this band came in the form of the track “Intra Venus”. They even went as far as to hire a professional film crew to capture the magic of the night, they collectively had the crowd eating out of their hands with people crowd surfing and clapping along with every command.
I could go on, however this was one for the books and if you were lucky enough to witness this then this won’t be a distant memory any time soon and the looks on the punters faces was evidence enough. So much fun and well worth the trek from Western Australia, I’ll be talking about this gig for along time to come.
[Special thanks to Tam Schilling at Tamcam Images for helping with photos from the show]
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Carlie Tainthsky Photography (except where noted)
Ne Obliviscaris
Caligula’s Horse
Beyond Creation, Allegaeon, Rivers Of Nihil
