Live Reviews : Soundwave 2014: Melbourne

After a few unfortunate delays resulting in a late entrance, it was metalcore outfit August Burns Red that kicked off this year’s Soundwave Festival for this reviewer. Despite not being familiar with the band whatsoever, they proved to be an excellent way to get the blood pumping for the day. With a nice thick sound and an already-energetic crowd, August Burns Red may not have been the most unique band on the lineup but they surprisingly proved to be one of the catchiest.

It’s always hard for a band that relies so much on space and ambience to really provide the full impact at a festival setting, and that was the only downside to Tesseract‘s set. Beginning with three of the first four songs from their latest album “Altered Stage’ (skipping “Of Matter – Resist”), some of the calmer moments were sullied by the sound bleed from Stage 3. Despite that, the band were in fine form, and thankfully turned to “Concealing Fate” parts two and one to finish the set. Not only did the material from their past drown out more of the other stage, but the way the set became progressively heavier was simply a perfect way to organise it. Well done guys.

Despite the festival having, overall, possibly the best sound of any Soundwave to date, The Black Dahlia Murder were one of the ones that suffered a bit. Between the overly loud kick drums and barely audible guitars it was hard to digest. Whether that was a positioning thing or not, who knows, but there was only a couple of tracks to go until thrash legends Testament hit the stage next door, so there was no time to experiment. With one of the most badass stage sets of the festival, Testament yet again that they’re a powerful force on the live front. While it’s always great to hear classics like “Into the Pit” and “The New Order”, it was the monstrous rendition of “3 Days of Darkness” that really hit home; extended and slowed down, it was huge.

A quick trip for nostalgia’s sake (which, let’s face it, is half of most music festivals these days) over to the main stage led to hearing The Living End‘s “End of the World”. Oh, memories. It’s funny what an effect nostalgia has though. Over at stage 4a nu-metal band Ill Nino were throwing percussion in all directions and, without having actually been a fan back in the day, it came across as nothing but dated. Rose coloured glasses and all that jazz, hey?

After all the controversy surrounding Gwar‘s on-stage decapitation of a Tony Abbott effigy, everybody knew exactly what to expect. The crowd were covered in litres and litres of fake blood within the first thirty seconds and, sure enough, Mr Abott came out after the first track, with a police officer being speared and carried off as a spitroast not long after. While it was all entertaining for a short while, it all got a bit same-y so it was over to Dir En Grey, purely because the name was intriguing.

And what a shock that was. Despite walking into what was some intense but rather normal death metal, the Japanese band took a sharp left into jazz territory while the vocalist wailed wildly over the top. Some mellow moments and traditional-ish oriental-ish cleans lulled the somewhat surprised crowd into a false sense of security before they exploded back into the heavy stuff. It was like hearing an entire theatrical set in one song. Totally left of centre, they’re a band that warrant some more investigation.

Second time seeing Placebo confirmed suspicions that they don’t really suit large-scale festivals with their honest, intimate sound being lost in the wide open space. It did however prove perfect music to chill on the grass and relax to; “Every You Every Me”, “The Bitter End” and “Meds” were a nice cross section, as well as a few newies.

Walking past Bowling For Soup was a laugh, the band waving from the stage exclaiming “We’re Bowling For Soup, the band you can wave at. Try waving at Green Day, they won’t fucking wave back.”

Thy Art Is Murder, as usual, sounded undeniably brutal. Vocalist CJ had the crowd in the palm of his hand with mosh-pit being one of the most intense of the day.

With a simply but classy backdrop of three glowing crosses, Crosses (†††) surprisingly had one of the smaller crowd of the day. Despite being more of a headphones-band, they sounded excellent as Chino stood on the edge of the front for one of the most minimal performances at the festival. It’s the type of music that sucks you in; “Bitches Brew” and “Thholyghst” from the new album being a particular highlight.

Another break over on the main stage grass meant catching the last few tracks from Alice in Chains, who blew minds at their 2009 Soundwave appearance. Still at the top of their game, cuts like “Rooster” never lose their impact.

Little more was expected from Korn than a few laughs and a good dose of nostalgia but with “Freak on a Leash”, “Twist” and “Blind” rounding out the set it ended up being a whole lot more entertaining than expected. The newer material however was, as expected, lost on most.

For a lot of the metal fans, France’s Gojira were one of the most exciting additions. As displayed on their last festival appearance (and sideshow), they’re a flawless live act. The massive grooves of “The Heaviest Matter of the Universe” and “Flying Whales” were, well, even more massive than on the recordings. And between those and the relentlessness of “L’Enfant Sauvage” and “Backbone”, it was the kind of set that never lost it’s impact. Thoroughly enthralling from start to finish, those guys are one of metal’s modern day gems.

Rob Zombie, while actually performing his own songs, was as entertaining as expected. A backdrop of classic horror characters, red lights and a whole of “YEAH!” was classic stuff, but there was way too much filler. Between the pointless Metallica covers, the slightly more bearable/appropriate partial cover of Alice Cooper‘s “Schools Out” and John 5’s drawn out guitar solo, half an hour of their set was three Zombie songs. And one of which was “Sick Bubble-Gum”, a definitely low-point of his career. On the up-side “House of 1000 Corpses” was a nice surprise and it was all still entertaining, but it was too much style over substance even for him.

With more than half of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s set coming from their most recent album (the first five songs from the album, to be precise), it was perhaps one of their more easily-digestable shows. The hypnotising-yet-frantic light show complimented their perfectly excecuted performance well and the band members, as always, exerted more energy than the whole crowd combined.

“Black Tongue” into “Divinations” was the best possible beginning to Mastodon‘s set. Just like last time they toured, it was hard to fault their sound or performance. There’s something about them (well, some of their material) where despite the heaviness, they still have this killer relaxed vibe, and that combination was the best possible end to a festival. As the band moved into some new material, a quick trip over to the main stage saw experiencing Green Day’s “American Idiot” ticked off the bucket list. Sure, it wasn’t on there in the first place, but after how much fun it was it deserves to be added just to be crossed off. And then it was back to Mastodon to catch “March of the Fire Ants” and a great rendition of “Blood and Thunder” with Clutch’s Neil Fallon taking over vocal duties.

With all-round good sound, never more than a few minutes wait in a line, well organised set times, and spot-on festival weather, Soundwave 2014 was one of the finest to date. Bring on next year.

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