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DIMEDAY 2008

w/ Deprivation, Heathen Ritual, Kunvuk, Nemesphyxia, Reign and The Metatron

The Home Tavern – Wagga Wagga, 6th December, 2008.

Wagga Wagga, the largest in-land city in NSW – a place so good they had to name it twice! Centre of the Riverina and home to a small yet thriving metal scene. Wagga Wagga has given birth to some stellar bands over the past few years, two such bands are Leicohtica and Sobrusion. If you don’t know these two bands then your doing yourself a disservice! Go and check them out NOW! But we’re not here to talk about them, we’re hear to talk about an amazing event that just took place, an event I was lucky enough to be part of: Dimeday!

Saturday 6th of December was set aside as a very special day in Wagga Wagga this year. The day was named Dimeday, a day to celebrate the life of an amazing man, one Dimebag Darrel Abbott. The distances some people travelled to get there are a testament to the love and respect Dimebag has earned from the metal community. Some travelling from as far as Orange, Sydney and Melbourne (I’m told I wasn’t the only Melbournite at the gig) which I am only too willing to testify is a bloody long drive! So many people converged on the Home Tavern in fact that I’d say that Dimeday 2008 could possibly be the largest turnout for a metal gig Wagga Wagga has ever seen! Bigger even than what The Berzerker achieved when they came here with Festival of the Dead and this time there were no big names to draw them here, no international bands, just one man. Dimebag…

The Metatron (Wagga) – www.myspace.com/themetatronband
The Metatron opened things up bright and early at 4pm with what they self admittedly called a “rusty as fuck” set. I don’t want to say anything bad about these fine people because the heart was there even if the notes weren’t always on time. From what I understand the Metatron had broken up some 18 months ago and haven’t played together since then, re-forming for one last jovial gig in the name of the master of joviality. As rusty as they were they clearly had fun and so did the crowd. We even saw Scott Bromley of Leicohtica take the microphone for a couple of ill-rehearsed Pantera covers that got a lot of people moshing and laughing heartily.

Kudos to the Metatron for having the guts to get up a play knowing full well how rusty they were. Kudose also go to the crowd for getting on their feet and lending support to what could one day be a brilliant band if they ever decide to re-form properly.

Reign (Albury/Wodonga) – www.myspace.com/reignmetalband
Next was Reign, a band I had never heard of before and a relative newcomer when compared to most of the other bands they shared the stage with. Not that it showed, Reign blasted the Home Tavern with their thrashy (but not quite thrash) metal music right from the get-go and held no punches for the rest of the set. I instantly began to feel muscle twitches running down my spine, a strange ailment that could only be alleviated by thrashing my bald head around like certified mad man trying to shake the voices out. Thankfully I was not alone as many others appeared to share my problem. Reign’s set was either cut short or I simply had too much fun as the next thing I knew the band were saying their thankyous and leaving the stage. I must see them again!

Nemesphyxia (Wagga) – www.myspace.com/nemesphyxia
Local melodic death metal band Nemesphyxia, were next to take the stage and were the heaviest band of the night. The boys seemed to have their sights set on tearing to shreds the minds of the all too eager to mosh, slam dance and beat the living crap out of each other crowd. Wasting no time they exploded into a set of no-holds-bared blast beats, fast chunky riffage and wailing sweep laden leads all topped off nicely by Scott Lister’s ear grinding vocals, he has obviously had the larynx of a demon of the tenth dimension implanted into his throat. Nemesphyxia are improving with every show and this was by far the tightest and heaviest I’ve seen them play yet, a sentiment echoed later in many an overheard conversation. Keep an eye out for them in Melbourne as they are planning to move down this way early 2010 so no doubt there will be a gig or two to soften up the crowds beforehand.

Kunvuk (Sydney) – www.myspace.com/kunvuk
Drawing comments from the crowd like “he looks like Devin Townsed” (their probably going to hate me for saying that) and “wow, that drummer is hot”, Kunvuk were clearly an unknown quantity here and many people (myself included) had no idea what to expect. What we discovered was an exciting clash of metal, punk, progressive and psychotic music that had a surprisingly large percentage of the (by now) very drunk crowd dancing around to something they couldn’t quite explain.

Now, while the vocals weren’t exactly to my taste I found Kunvuk to be very entertaining and lead guitarist David Hart’s witty retorts to the (few) less than appreciative crowd members heckles were quite amusing. If you like your metal quirky and weird and you don’t know Kunvuk (or weren’t at this gig) then I suggest you check them out.

Heathen Ritual (Albury/Wadonga) – www.myspace.com/heathenritual
Wow, just wow. Heathen Ritual was born for this day!

After what was far too long a wait Heathen Ritual entered the stage and very quickly established themselves as favourites of the night. Playing (probably deliberately) the most covers (including one very early hair metal era Pantera song), they pelted out a brilliant high energy set that was so well received that vocalist Mick Steel had to shoo over zealous crowd members off the stage a number of times. It wasn’t just the Pantera covers that got the crowd worked up, the bands own “thrashier than a Mike Tyson vs Steve Urkel fight” songs worked the crowd into such a frenzy that no single entity could be made out for all the arms and legs flying through the air as people were flung around like little silver balls in a V8 powered pinball machine.

By the end of the set the elation in the band was palpable, they were clearly happy with what they had just done. Steel even went so far as to thank the crowd for helping them play the best gig of there career!

Deprivation (Orange) – www.myspace.com/deprivationband
Deprivation were great, they seriously put on a kick arse show. Unfortunate for them that they played after Heathen Ritual….. It is a testament to the quality of this band that despite the entire crowd being either too drunk to stand or simply worn out from Heathen Ritual’s killing spree they still had a pit; a pit of the walking dead maybe but a pit none the less. I wish I could say more about them but I was exhausted by this stage and unfortunately as a result didn’t take in much of their set.

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Dimeday was a resounding success. Many a neck was sprained and many a drink was drunk in Dime’s name, but most of all everyone had a rollicking good time. Unfortunately I can’t comment on the after party as by the time Deprivation had finished, the combined effects of sunburn (how do you get burned only on the left side when driving? I don’t understand!!!), having driven so long to get there, and a well meaning mother waking me up bright and early to tell me she was going to leave me to sleep in (What? I hear you ask) had taken its toll on me and I was exhausted.

Well done to the organisers and thankyou to the bands and Dime fans that showed up and made this such an awesome gig.

See you again next year!

Dimebag Darrel Abbott. 1966-2004 R.I.P. \m/

Reviewed by Franky
Photos taken by Susie Berryman @ www.rustephoto.com except for header photo.