ULCERATE

w/ Beyond Terror Beyond Grace, Akaname, Malignus

The Central Club, Richmond – 11th February, 2010

After a harrowing time driving to the Richmond venue in crazy weather conditions, Malignus were up first to greet me. Being the first time I’d have seen the band, I was slightly expecting some form of grinding (dis)pleasure to entice further loss of hearing. Thankfully however the band turned out to be quite a promising death metal outfit and an enjoyable one at that. The bands range of songs in their delightfully mixed set was enjoyable, with various interlude styled riffs and melodies making sure the set didn’t approach the term generic. In fact far from it with said interludes sometimes reminiscent of the Egyptian sounding Nile, others an alarumesque sounding jazz fusion. Add to that an ‘even better than the substandard original rendition’ of a slam riff, and the minimal crowd was on their way for the night.

Another band I’d hardly heard of let alone actually heard were up next – Akaname. Relocating from New Zealand to Melbourne in recent times, the 4 members (majestically displaying two neck beards and another in the making) delivered a more than 100% enjoyable performance of music. Akaname are a weird band – I do mean that affectionately of course – and one that is utterly difficult to describe! I read a quote once somewhere, kudos to whoever said it, that when a band is creating their music, they should take a list of their ten favourite bands and blend them all to create something that a) represents their musical influences and b) doesn’t sound like any particular band.

Whether they had done the aforementioned or not, the four piece instrumentalists created music that captivated the slightly bigger than before crowd. I was thinking (for a good 4-5 minutes…serious thinking hey) on who I could reference to give you an idea on their sound and the bands Meshuggah, Enslaved and Explosions in the Sky came to mind – in that they had some crazy patterns/progressions like the Americans, Below the Lights era Enslaved with a touch of black metal complete with progressive styling, blended with intense post metal ala the heavier side of Explosions. An eclectic and satisfactory mix.

Beyond Terror Beyond Grace, organizers of this East Coast + Adelaide tour and grind overlords of Sydney, were up next and showed how one person can give an entire band stage presence. Front man Bart with the trendy hair was like a punk on speed, thrashing and screaming around the centre of stage as the rest of the band made their way through there relatively short set of relatively short tracks – much of which was from their upcoming album titled Our Ashes Built Mountains, set to be released through Obscene Productions and Deepsend Records. Perhaps this Saturday when a similar lineup again plays in Melbourne the crowd will be a bit more into it and build an atmosphere worthy for this styled music.

After finding out about New Zealand’s Ulcerate mid last year with their second album titled Everything Is Fire, my attention was immediately captured. With a forward thinking take on death metal, the four piece translate their music powerfully to the live stage. Somewhat mysteriously with their backs to the crowd, the band opened with the track Tyranny before continuing to showcase tracks off an album which not only received acclaim from us here at MO, but also from a host of different heavy metal media around the world.

The mastery of craft that each member displayed was a highlight, with drummer Jamie Saint Merat displaying a ‘Dave Haley of NZ‘ type range and pure awesomeness/brutality. The intelligibly structured riffs and bass lines, clever use of guitar feedback, all matched with a dominating vocal performance by Paul Kelland captured everyone in the venue as they made their way through a number of tracks from Everything Is Fire, along with a quick foray into their back catalogue.

Abruptly the lights went down, the band left their guitars feeding back through their amps and quickly left the stage creating an aura of mystique that has me craving so dearly for more. Prepare yourselves for the old ‘do yourselves a favour’ line, but if you haven’t checked them out, or aren’t convinced of seeing them live if/when you get your chance, just do it.