Club 299 - Sat Jul 18

Tonight’s show is a tragic example of good Australian bands getting shafted. Based around the bizarre decision to open doors at 7pm and have all the bands finished by 10pm, band sets are cut incredibly tight, punters making fashionably late entries miss nearly all the festivities and as a result a killer show feels like something of a non-event, despite the bands’ best efforts. First to inhabit 299’s corner stage, local metallic hardcore bruisers Down Royale are shredding tight breakdowns and ripping up big, chugga chugga mosh parts. Were there more people in the room, the tunes would have been perfect to stomp around a pit to. Helm’s short set tonight assures that they are not long to be slotted at the tail end of bills. In the tone drenched room, cuts from their Vol. 1… Keelhaul EP are both annihilating and pretty. Similarly, Lynchmada make the best of the situation, and their more recent math metal leanings are skilfully juxtaposed against their back catalogue of more straightforward metalcore. Five Star Prison Cell could be Australia’s answer to the Dillinger Escape Plan. Even in their 35-minute-long headlining slot, Five Star manage to destroy souls and melt faces.

TOM HERSEY

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