Live Reviews : Free Your Mind @ The Hi-Fi, Melbourne 31/05/2014

Images: Kristen Ashton
Words: Jonty Simmons

With a line stretching far outside the door and a sold out show, Northlane had a lot riding on their Free Your Mind tour/mini festival. With Exposures, Make Them Suffer, Volumes, Veil of Maya, Thy Art is Murder and the headliners themselves on the bill, fans of heavy music would be hard pressed to find a bigger show for only $40.

Once inside, local openers Exposures were tasked with warming up the crowd and preparing them for the sonic annihilation they were about to witness. Riding the djent wave, Exposures performed a solid set with a few keen members of the audience swinging their arms in appreciation. However, a notable amount of the songs continued along a similar tangent; in order for Exposures to differentiate themselves, a certain defining edge to their performance would benefit them greatly.

For Make Them Suffer, their defining edge would be their symphonic influences and interplaying female and male vocals. Standing as the odd ones out of the bill where genres are concerned, Make Them Suffer are able to put on one hell of a show. When a live show is impressively close to its studio counterpart, especially Tim Madden and Louisa Burton’s performances on drums and keyboards/clean vocals respectively, it’s obvious that the band has honed their skills in order to make a name for themselves. This was thrust upon the audience within the opening of ‘Neverbloom’, with the small crowd of people suddenly doubling in size once lead vocalist Sean Harmanis emitted the track’s initial ear piercing scream. By the time ‘Widower’ completed their setlist, the cheers from the crowd were an obvious sign that Make Them Suffer had gained a significant amount of followers based on their live skills alone.

When Volumes hit the stage, the first question was undoubtedly: “Does a heavy band really need dual screaming vocals?” By the end of the set, it was clear that the answer was a resounding “hell yes”. As Michael Barr performed the majority of the screams plus clean vocals, Gus Farias threw his own weight alongside Barr’s to create a unique experience that not many bands today provide. When Barr gave an impassioned speech about the amazing state of live music in Australia, it brought a sense of irony with it due to the loss of one of Australia’s best live music venues; the Palace Theatre. However, with lighters ablaze and phone lights illuminating the stage, this melancholy was erased with Diego Farias’ distinctive guitar work during crowd favourite ‘Wormholes’. Once Volumes left the stage, a sizeable crowd quickly ran to the bar to hydrate in preparation for the heaviest bands on the lineup.

Veil of Maya are one of deathcore’s mainstays; with over 8 years under their belt, their live show is polished and their technical skills are faultless. Lead vocalist Brandon Butler appears on stage as misleading as they come; a wide grin etched on his face, if you placed an acoustic guitar in his hand he’d be a poster boy for a triple J darling indie band. But once he opens his mouth and speaks for himself, all misconceptions are thrown out the window. As Butler snarled his way through the set, guitarist Marc Okubo mirrored the rapid-fire vocal delivery with searing fretwork alongside Danny Hauser’s own limber fretting. Watching both guitarist and bassist work their way around the neck of the guitar is a sight to behold, especially when it’s obvious that they’re paying more attention with interacting with the crowd than keeping an eye on their hands. Unfortunately, Veil of Maya’s setlist choice lead to some songs bleeding into each other, but with such skilled musicians, the audience could hardly complain.

As the lights dimmed blood red, Thy Art is Murder arrived on stage, with the biggest cheer reserved for vocalist CJ McMahon. CJ is terrifying enough just by his physical stature, being over 6 foot and covered in tattoos; once he begins to scream however, it would be perfectly acceptable to feel legitimately terrified at the sheer ferocity that comes out during Thy Art’s set. His vocals are one of a kind, and you’d be hard pressed to find someone outside of Boris the Blade’s Sharpy who commands a similar stage presence. However, outside of the world of Thy Art’s songs, CJ completely changes to become ‘one of the blokes’; during set closer ‘Reign of Darkness’, the imposing wall of muscle folded his hands during an instrumental section and imitated a butterfly flying away. This tongue in cheek attitude is part of Thy Art’s massive appeal, as shown by the packed out pit with blood literally being spilt onto the floor from nosebleeds and split lips. The crowd’s love for the band was most prominently shown when CJ announced that it was time for ‘Whore to a Chainsaw’.

If there was any time during ‘Free Your Mind’ that the pit became a bloodbath, this was it due to the unmistakeable intro riff from guitarist Andy Marsh. It would be an understatement to say that over half the crowd pushed as hard as they could to reach the outstretched microphone for the band’s infamous signature song. However, it’s impossible to commend Thy Art without reserving a special honour for drummer Lee Stanton; even if the audience stared at him for the whole of the set, they would be unable to comprehend the speed at which he maneuvers around the kit with such precision. If Thy Art prove to be as successful when they tour Germany soon, we may lose one of our most precious deathcore commodities, so here’s (selfishly, but who can blame us) hoping that Europe fails to take them on board.

As the opening track of Northlane’s breakout sophomore effort Singularity reverberated around the venue, it was on for one and all. As soon as Nic Pettersen struck his first tom during ‘Genesis’, the crowd surged forward and people flew every which way in response to the sheer force exerted by an audience starved for a performance by the djent kings of Australia. The obvious following track ‘Scarab’ proved that Adrian Fitipaldes’ vocal problems that had plagued him earlier throughout the tour were nowhere to be found, as he needed no assistance when screaming ‘so you want the fucking truth?’ to a delighted crowd who lent their voices regardless. The floorboards of the Hi-Fi were pushed to their limits as ‘Aspire’ whipped the crowd into a pogoing frenzy; Northlane are so adept at writing lyrics that beg to be screamed, that Adrian has no need to preface breakdowns whilst the crowd is more than willing to scream ‘we are all born to be free’. For only the second time in a tour of Victoria, ‘Masquerade’ was a welcome addition to a setlist that has had few incarnations over the past 2 years with Gus Farias providing guest vocals in place of Drew York of Stray from the Path.

In order to allow the audience to take a breather, ‘Dream Awake’ showcased the impressive clean vocal skills of Adrian whilst Josh Smith created an atmospheric ambience with the entire crowd following suit by waving their arms side to side. This was a brief reprieve however, as Alex Milovic brought the unmistakeable intro of ‘Dispossession’ with one of the largest cheers of the night erupting from the audience. To survive ‘Dispossession’ in the middle of the moshpit is an absolute feat, and it’s almost impossible not to be caught up in the song’s catchy breakdown. ‘Corruption’ tested how many diehard fans were attending the tour, with few screaming the lyrics as passionately as when Singularity material was performed. Those who had caught onto the band after Discoveries were not disappointed however, as the one-two punch of ‘Windbreaker’ and ‘Worldeater’ brought such a punishing close to the set that it was almost a struggle to stay in the mosh in hopes of an encore. This reprehensible attitude was immediately dispelled once Pettersen heralded the beginning of ‘Abrasumente’, which was received significantly warmer than ‘Corruption’ by the crowd. But it was obvious that the crowd were saving the last of their energy for the final track, and lead single of Singularity; ‘Quantum Flux’. At certain points it was impossible to hear Adrian throughout the chorus with the sheer volume of crowd participation, which bodes extremely well for the Sydneysiders. With new material on the horizon, an overwhelmingly positive response after the ‘American Dream’ tour in the US and an almost entirely sold out mini-festival in such a harsh financial climate, Northlane are easily placed alongside Parkway Drive and The Amity Affliction as one of Australia’s premier metal acts.

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