Metalstock 2006 - the crappy review
Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 10:17 amFor those who don't know, Metalstock is Australia's first and only 3 day open air metal festival and its held in the Hunter Valley NSW. This year we had almost twice as many bands.
Sadly I didn't watch ALL bands but I saw most, here are my crappy reviews on some of the highlights.
The Five Venoms - 4 Chinese dudes, the 2 guitarists who allegedly have only been playing for 3 or 4 years obviously had too much time on their hands, they were shit hot. But while their technique showed obvious Malmsteen influence, the soul just wasn't there. At one stage the lead guitarist played with his teeth, that was pretty cool. Overall, too much wank and not enough awesomeness.
Black Asylum - They were pretty good. They made me quite nervous because my band was up next and it was definitely a hard act to follow. All relatively young and an up and coming force to be reckoned with in the oz metal scene.
Beyond Terror Beyond Grace - HOLY FUCK!! One of Australia's most threatening grind band. The drummer is insane and wait for it, he just turned 17. He is the wonderkid of oz metal drummers, it was just a blur behind the drums.
Moredhel - I liked the make up... The drummer looked cool but if you have short and hair and a moustache, corpse paint ain't for you.
Child Of Stone - Self proclaimed "Pimp-Core" this band was the only band like our band in the way that we provided comic relief. All the other bands were "ahh satan, raaahhhh, we're metal, listen to my hooves!!" and shit but these guys were very light hearted. They did a cool cover of 'damage inc' and stopped right before the solo. Someone in the crowd asked, "where's the solo?!" to which the singer replied, "funny you should ask" before blasting perfectly straight back into the solo.
Black Asylum - played before us, definitely a hard act to follow. Nice guys and young. They should do well.
Invocation - OK these guys (and they'll love that I'm going to say this) are flat out, down right evil as fuck. They started the set with a "Death To False Metal" chant which when you think about it isn't that cool because that's what Manowar used to say and they're cheesy as fuck. They had big spikes and the old Damage drummer who isn't as good these days but still does 100km marathons before sets (yes, he's done it before). They've also be known to beat each other up back stage and get all bloodied up and shit. Overall the band was nothing special... I hate half assed Satanists, if you're a Satanist you don't go camping and play music, you kill people and shit... never mind... NEXT
Isgahaatt - my drummer's PROPER band. They're melodic prog black metal and sadly it was Braithe's (their lead guitarist) last gig as he's focusing on his other band DISPEL (fucking awesome band). They played an awesome set but its just sooo wrong watching black metal in the day. Their bassist and my good friend Stu will be filling in on guitar.
Darker Half - Now I have to say, even though they had ex Dimmu Borgir Astennu doing sound he did a shite job. Just didn't get the levels right but that didn't stop Vo and the boys. They provided most of the power metal of the whole fest and managed to sell a fair bit of merch. Nick on rhythm guitar was fucking unreal, he's a LEGEND OF ALL LEGENDS!
Murder Hill - Here it is, easily my favourite band for the whole festival. They were tech thrashy melodic prog but man this guy was such a good guitarist. I particularly hate guitarist's who are all tech and no soul but holy shit balls this guy was soooo tech but soooo soulful. I bought a shirt, demo and downloaded their track off myspace "wholly" which has one of my favourite ever solos. Marten their lead guitarist is a champion of a person too.
Inslain - They were pretty cool, old school thrash kinda stuff. Highlight was the best taking out his glass eye and putting it in his mouth.
Aeturnus Dominion - Self proclaimed, Brutal Aussie Bastard Metal. Very brutal but almost like power metal/death... or power death perhaps. They played one of their finest sets.
Anarazel - they were a black metal band. I thought they were ok but my friend Stu has really taken to them.
The Furor - holy fuck, not only was this black metal drummer drumming like a bastard possessed but he was singing too... Its a must see.
Switchblade - My old compadres Matt and Andrew ripped up a storm. They were joined on bass by Simon (vaticide's guitarist) as their old bassist moved to another state and didn't tell the guys. The fool left one of Australia's more prominent metal bands. Regardless, first set in 6 months, Switchblade did awesome!! Matt's drumming has come such a long way and I can't believe how much better and better Andrew is getting. They've come along way since jamming in my basement.
Infernal Method - Sadly, Pete Peric, the main writer for Infernal Method left the band only a month or so ago but was replaced by Andrew from Switchblade. I really enjoyed this set, it was definitely in my top 3 of all bands at Metalstock. Its melodic/death/thrash kinda stuff but man all the riffs are soooo sweet. Everyone should check this band out, also keen to see how Andrew fairs up.
Profanation - These dudes travelled all the way from Germany, what fucking legends! They're a grind band and man their tight. Very good entertainers, awesome live show.
Vaticide (HEADLINERS) - The band is brutal death metal. Holy shit, I've never seen these dudes live even though I'm a good friend of Rob their singer/bassist. He is the dude who along with Ben from Darker Half organised Metalstock. Usually he comes over stressed out but always mellow. Very quiet guy... Then I saw him do his live thing!! He's like a man possessed!! He had demonic eyes and brutally blasted punters onto their asses. Then there's their guitarist, he's just bullshit good.
OK now I'll cock on about my shitty band's set. Personally I thought it was one of our best sets. We fucked a song a little bit but we didn't have our regular line-up. We had our drummer Doom on guitar and Darker Half's singer/lead guitarist on drums for one song and guitar on the other. Then on the other songs we had Jim and Max both ex Darker Half on drums and bass. I got to smash a keyboard on stage and we flat out took the piss. Our only regret is that we forgot to do "The Dev" (aka funny vampira dance) on stage. Maybe next time.
For anyone who was in a band I didn't review... Sorry, I was probably smoking weed in my tent at the time you were on... Maybe next year.
Sadly I didn't watch ALL bands but I saw most, here are my crappy reviews on some of the highlights.
The Five Venoms - 4 Chinese dudes, the 2 guitarists who allegedly have only been playing for 3 or 4 years obviously had too much time on their hands, they were shit hot. But while their technique showed obvious Malmsteen influence, the soul just wasn't there. At one stage the lead guitarist played with his teeth, that was pretty cool. Overall, too much wank and not enough awesomeness.
Black Asylum - They were pretty good. They made me quite nervous because my band was up next and it was definitely a hard act to follow. All relatively young and an up and coming force to be reckoned with in the oz metal scene.
Beyond Terror Beyond Grace - HOLY FUCK!! One of Australia's most threatening grind band. The drummer is insane and wait for it, he just turned 17. He is the wonderkid of oz metal drummers, it was just a blur behind the drums.
Moredhel - I liked the make up... The drummer looked cool but if you have short and hair and a moustache, corpse paint ain't for you.
Child Of Stone - Self proclaimed "Pimp-Core" this band was the only band like our band in the way that we provided comic relief. All the other bands were "ahh satan, raaahhhh, we're metal, listen to my hooves!!" and shit but these guys were very light hearted. They did a cool cover of 'damage inc' and stopped right before the solo. Someone in the crowd asked, "where's the solo?!" to which the singer replied, "funny you should ask" before blasting perfectly straight back into the solo.
Black Asylum - played before us, definitely a hard act to follow. Nice guys and young. They should do well.
Invocation - OK these guys (and they'll love that I'm going to say this) are flat out, down right evil as fuck. They started the set with a "Death To False Metal" chant which when you think about it isn't that cool because that's what Manowar used to say and they're cheesy as fuck. They had big spikes and the old Damage drummer who isn't as good these days but still does 100km marathons before sets (yes, he's done it before). They've also be known to beat each other up back stage and get all bloodied up and shit. Overall the band was nothing special... I hate half assed Satanists, if you're a Satanist you don't go camping and play music, you kill people and shit... never mind... NEXT
Isgahaatt - my drummer's PROPER band. They're melodic prog black metal and sadly it was Braithe's (their lead guitarist) last gig as he's focusing on his other band DISPEL (fucking awesome band). They played an awesome set but its just sooo wrong watching black metal in the day. Their bassist and my good friend Stu will be filling in on guitar.
Darker Half - Now I have to say, even though they had ex Dimmu Borgir Astennu doing sound he did a shite job. Just didn't get the levels right but that didn't stop Vo and the boys. They provided most of the power metal of the whole fest and managed to sell a fair bit of merch. Nick on rhythm guitar was fucking unreal, he's a LEGEND OF ALL LEGENDS!
Murder Hill - Here it is, easily my favourite band for the whole festival. They were tech thrashy melodic prog but man this guy was such a good guitarist. I particularly hate guitarist's who are all tech and no soul but holy shit balls this guy was soooo tech but soooo soulful. I bought a shirt, demo and downloaded their track off myspace "wholly" which has one of my favourite ever solos. Marten their lead guitarist is a champion of a person too.
Inslain - They were pretty cool, old school thrash kinda stuff. Highlight was the best taking out his glass eye and putting it in his mouth.
Aeturnus Dominion - Self proclaimed, Brutal Aussie Bastard Metal. Very brutal but almost like power metal/death... or power death perhaps. They played one of their finest sets.
Anarazel - they were a black metal band. I thought they were ok but my friend Stu has really taken to them.
The Furor - holy fuck, not only was this black metal drummer drumming like a bastard possessed but he was singing too... Its a must see.
Switchblade - My old compadres Matt and Andrew ripped up a storm. They were joined on bass by Simon (vaticide's guitarist) as their old bassist moved to another state and didn't tell the guys. The fool left one of Australia's more prominent metal bands. Regardless, first set in 6 months, Switchblade did awesome!! Matt's drumming has come such a long way and I can't believe how much better and better Andrew is getting. They've come along way since jamming in my basement.
Infernal Method - Sadly, Pete Peric, the main writer for Infernal Method left the band only a month or so ago but was replaced by Andrew from Switchblade. I really enjoyed this set, it was definitely in my top 3 of all bands at Metalstock. Its melodic/death/thrash kinda stuff but man all the riffs are soooo sweet. Everyone should check this band out, also keen to see how Andrew fairs up.
Profanation - These dudes travelled all the way from Germany, what fucking legends! They're a grind band and man their tight. Very good entertainers, awesome live show.
Vaticide (HEADLINERS) - The band is brutal death metal. Holy shit, I've never seen these dudes live even though I'm a good friend of Rob their singer/bassist. He is the dude who along with Ben from Darker Half organised Metalstock. Usually he comes over stressed out but always mellow. Very quiet guy... Then I saw him do his live thing!! He's like a man possessed!! He had demonic eyes and brutally blasted punters onto their asses. Then there's their guitarist, he's just bullshit good.
OK now I'll cock on about my shitty band's set. Personally I thought it was one of our best sets. We fucked a song a little bit but we didn't have our regular line-up. We had our drummer Doom on guitar and Darker Half's singer/lead guitarist on drums for one song and guitar on the other. Then on the other songs we had Jim and Max both ex Darker Half on drums and bass. I got to smash a keyboard on stage and we flat out took the piss. Our only regret is that we forgot to do "The Dev" (aka funny vampira dance) on stage. Maybe next time.
For anyone who was in a band I didn't review... Sorry, I was probably smoking weed in my tent at the time you were on... Maybe next year.