The Globe - Sat Aug 28

The hype surrounding the first ever Bastardfest has The Globe’s bar packed out and the main room bouncing to some of Australia’s finest extreme metal. Unfortunately most of that happens after Sciamachy’s set, which compromises tech and prog influences with a slew of insidious grooves. High Plains Drifter sound like whiskey and sunburn, and even if most of the crowd is drinking beer they’re vocal in their support of the thunderous groove lurking beneath the surface of the band’s southern metal set.

Next, Defamer play a set of harrowingly atmospheric death metal before Canberra doom lords Pod People slow things down. The crowd is highly appreciative of both sets. Under a changing backdrop of eerie artwork, Brisbane black metal act ASTRIAAL play a set; as polished as their live show is, a feral energy screams through the PA during the moments of tremolo-picked black metal madness in songs like Ode To Antiquity.

After an evening spent loitering near the bar, trying to get passers-by to buy them beers, Melbourne grind outfit Blood Duster take to The Globe’s stage. Both awesome and appalling, they call other bands shit, encourage nudity and desecrate vintage guitars, swaying precariously through their drunken romp of a set. If not outright dangerous, Duster are certainly unpredictable and from the rock & roll shout-outs of Three Ohh Seven Ohh to the sleazy grind riffs of Porn Store Stiffi, the crowd are right with the band, applauding every politically incorrect song and the unrelenting Dave Haley blast beats accompanying it. As sunglasses-wearing vocalist Tone Bone assures the crowd that this is their last song, Duster rip through Motherfuckin’, I Love The Pills and Dahmer The Embalmer before they actually finish their set with low-brow testosterone anthem Drink Fight Fuck, closing the inaugural Bastardfest with the infamy it rightly deserves.

TOM HERSEY

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