Hailing from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, Hybrid Nightmares warmed the audience for things to come. While aptly performed, the five-piece unfortunately came across as slightly too rehearsed. Perhaps they felt a little out of their depth performing in a room full of people waiting to see Enslaved. The audience reaction was minimal.
This was disappointing, as they definitely put on quite an impressive live performance, disregarding the awkward onstage shuffle of Ben Plant and Michael Gumley to demonstrate their dueling guitars solos.
‘Mourn Not The Dead’ was a particular highlight, albeit the corpse paint and synchronised head banging felt a little bit overkill – especially for this type of crowd. Even so, a rock-solid performance. With a little more room to breathe, Hybrid Nightmares could go on to become relatively big and establish an affluent fan base.
Ne Obliviscaris have arguably become one of the most recognised faces in metal since the release of their debut album Portal Of I last year. Despite only playing three songs (one of which was completely new) it’s safe to say the crowd was enthralled with their technical wizardry and intricate composition.
With their complex song structures, it’s truly impressive to watch them play tracks spanning 10+ minutes each without fault. Tim Charles was a particular highlight, and looked like he truly enjoyed being on stage any time he wasn’t playing his violin or taking over clean vocal duties.
Even the select few who hadn’t heard of their existence were marveled by their performance; Melbourne’s own Ne Obliviscaris are a true spectacle in a live environment and an absolute show-stealer.
Having just released their debut album L’Appel Du Vide, Rise Of Avernus followed, bringing with them a symphonic metal sound that never sounded too bloated or over the top. Combining heavy doom metal riffs with multiple vocalists, the Sydney five-piece carried out a versatile performance.
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Opener, ‘A Triptych Journey’ demonstrated the best side of the band’s sound, carrying with it memorable opening riffs alongside technical soloing. Keyboardist and vocalist Cat Guirguis has an incredible vocal range, and when played off Ben Vanvollenhoven and Daniel Warrington, made the performance varied and engaging without falling into the trap of sounding commonplace or generic.
The aforementioned orchestral arrangements carried out by Guirguis are what really set the band apart from others of the genre, building upon their already established doom-metal sound and adding to its heaviness rather than detracting from it. Seldom do keyboards and heavy metal go together, but Rise Of Avernus managed to pull off a fluent show.
After a long wait, the lights dimmed and there was a thunderous applause. The presence of the Norwegian five-piece had been built up so much that the room was practically bursting at the seams with eager fans. Opening with the title track off their latest release RIITIIR, the applause seemingly doubled. Brutally intense and technically inspiring, Enslaved’s first visit on Australian soil was definitely worth the long wait for fans, both veterans and newcomers alike.
“Hello, we are Enslaved from Norway,” reaffirmed frontman Grutle Kjellson before abandoning his homeland’s dialect and establishing an instant rapport with the crowd by saying “G’day” and dropping the c-bomb not long thereafter (which he lavished for the rest of the set). Songs like ‘Ruun’ and ‘Ethica Odini’ resonated well with the crowd, Kjellson and band taking time between songs to crack jokes or tell anecdotes spanning their career.
Despite the RIITIIR dominated setlist, the group took time to honour the more seasoned fans with some older material. The one-two punch of ‘Allfaðr Oðinn’ and ‘Isa’ made for a much-appreciated encore, succeeding Cato Bekkevold’s drawn out drum solo – a substantial portion of which he did with keyboardist Ivar Bjørnson covering his eyes.
Enslaved retired for the night after nearly an hour and a half long set – metalheads everywhere walking away from the venue completely and utterly satisfied. Enslaved put on an absolutely incredible performance for their first trip Down Under. Hopefully it’s not their last.
Setlist
Encore:
