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NE OBLIVISCARIS

w/ Be’lakor and sleepmakeswaves

The East Brunswick Club – Melbourne, 4th October, 2008.

***View more gig photos by clicking here!***

After 14 months in the heavy metal wilderness, the night that all of Melbourne and many interstaters were waiting for had arrived!

With new guitarist Benjamin Baret in the band, the return of Ne Obliviscaris to the live scene was always going to be a massive gig. Multiply massive by two with the announcements of Be’lakor and sleepmakeswaves as support acts and what everyone at the East Brunswick Club in Melbourne was preparing to experience was undoubtedly a night of pure bliss.

Kicking the night off was sleepmakeswaves, who on their second visit to Melbourne from their hometown of Sydney, received an excellent response, from what I’d expect a large portion of the crowd seeing them for the first time. The band played a number of new tracks, along with a couple of tracks from their recent EP.

The night also saw a return to the live scene for Melbourne’s Be’lakor, who have been taking time out to write their follow up to their 2007 album ‘The Frail Tide’. The band picked up where they left off, playing an enthusiastic set of newer and older songs, all of them received with headbanging approval! Their set even featured a bit of bloodshed in the moshpit, where an enthusiastic fan cut open his forehead on a foldback…classy!

So then the time came for the return of Ne Obliviscaris, and the introduction of one Benjamin Baret. The crowd by this stage had built up to almost an unprecedented density for a gig such as this, although I’ve not seen any figures, I’m guessing a total approaching 300, possibly more, made the trip up Lygon Street to the East Brunswick Club, an awesome result for all the bands and Welkin Entertainment.

The set started with the rolling blasts from the drum kit of ‘Tapestry of the Starless Abstract’ – the opening track off the bands demo titled ‘The Aurora Veil’. Being in a headbanging state of my own, I was too busy to see what everyone else was doing, however surely that same bliss took hold over everyone in the venue in such a way that a massive smile and headbanging neck was an involuntary action!

Continuing on with a brand new track titled ‘Xenoflux’ which I think blew everyone away as equal to any other song the band has written. In fact word has it that the track was written in the majority by the band’s bass player, which goes to show the extreme musical depth the band has to offer. The delightful sounds of the track ‘Forget Not’ was up next, followed by yet another brand new track called ‘As Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope’. This new song is perhaps the most diverse sound that NeO has created thus far. Beginning with a heavily inspired Latin influence, the track progressed through various stages resulting in a fantastic climax which left me and presumably others with a craving for another rendition of said song.

An older, albeit unreleased song and personal favourite of mine was up next, that being ‘Upon the Tongue of Eloquence’. I genuinely hope that the band records this one for the new record due out next year, and judging by the fact they played it this night, I think I’ll be a happy man! And just when it seemed the set has only just begun, NeO closed proceedings off with the final track from the demo – ‘As Icicles Fall’.

What the massive local crowd saw was something special. It was the return of a band that I truly believe will take the world by storm. A band with diversity, talent and a new found passion to take all in its path and make metal an even better genre to listen to. It’s official, Ne Obliviscaris have returned!

NE OBLIVISCARIS SETLIST: Saturday 4th October, 2008
Tapestry of the Starless Abstract
Xenoflux
Forget Not
As Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope
Upon the Tongue of Eloquence
As Icicles Fall

Reviewed by Brendan Amos.
Photos by Jess Day.