Live Reviews : Chronolyth, ‘Atrophy’ Album Launch @ The Brightside, Brisbane 29/04/2016

Australian bands have been doing a lot right over the last year. I mean that in the sense that not only have there have been major tours overseas by the few bands that are lucky to break through that crucial ceiling which determines if a band will forever be a local band or an international one; but locally there has also been some brilliant album releases, and Friday night saw Brisbane band Chronolyth debut their huge second album ‘Atrophy’ in Brisbane. Complete with other locals Worldlines, Driven Fear and Down Royale, the night was destined for success from the outset.

Beginning the night were Worldlines, a band that I’m not all to familiar with, but one that played with the same strength and intensity that I remember seeing The Amity Affliction use locally eight years ago while they were touring for Severed Ties. With a sound that crossed the Melodic and Metalcore boundaries this will definitely be a band that goes places and acted as the perfect curtain raiser for the night.

Up next were Driven Fear, yet another band that I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing and given that they shared a similar amount of Facebook likes as some of the other bigger local bands, I probably should have at least heard of them. Nevertheless I was initiated on Friday night and caught a band that could quite easily fit amongst some of the highest of its genre. With an energetic performance unheard of by most bands (even at the point where the guitarist was air singing to parts of the songs that the vocalist was singing) which helped to detract away from some of the audio issues with vocals throughout the set the band performed solidly and will be one

I’ll be looking further into.

Down Royale acted as the penultimate act of the night and by now there was a decent gathering at The Brightside. Down Royale has been touring for their album ‘Sway’ now for almost on two years so it was little surprising to see the venue start to fill up that little bit more when they took the stage. The band hit what seemed like a very brief set quite hard and put on the performance that you would have come to expect from such a band, but albeit too short for my liking.

I have been watching headliners, Chronolyth, for a few years now, and in that time I have seen them grow from an infantile fledgling band into the much more evolved product they are today. Friday night’s album launch showed a band that has not only matured in their sound and style since I first caught them, but also in themselves and their stage presence. It was little difficult to see the venue fill out for the headliners to listen to the debut of an album, which after a few listens, is one of the finer pieces of work so far this year – on a national and international scale. Playing a majority of newer songs, while also injecting some of the old favourites into the playlist ensured that new fans, old fans, and anyone just out for a night of live music was treated to the best that Chronolyth had to offer. Each band member put on some of the strongest energy I’ve seen a local band use, and the crowd lapped every minute of it up. Complete with circle pits, crowd chants, guest vocalists and crowd surfing, this set looked and performed like something you would witness a massive band performing at a major festival, and not something that cost $20 down at a local venue to watch. ‘Atrophy’ is upon us Australia, and if you can make it to one of Chronolyth’s upcoming shows in support of their new album then you need to – especially at local venue prices. Because at the rate that this machine keeps growing and rising, it won’t be long before these guys are commanding bigger crowds, and costing us a lot more to go and see them.

Chronolyth are on tour now. Tickets are available through the venues. Get involved!

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