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Waterloo Hotel - Sat Jun 28
The second annual Brutalfest sees one of the best line-ups assembled playing in a venue not exactly ideal for metal. Held in a beer garden-type place, the acoustics lack the visceral low-end rumbles so important to extreme metal. However, fans of the genre who are not deterred by the venue and the trek required to get to it find themselves greatly rewarded.
Before the sun has left the sky The Decimation Protocol have ripped through a quick set of brutal death metal that benefits greatly from a sharing of vocal duties.
Also primarily taking cues from death metal influences, five-piece Defamer spice things up with black metal guitar tones and a well placed use of tremolo picking. Well-known on the local scene, Defamer’s set goes down a treat with the slowly growing crowd.
The first interstate band to grace the Brutalfest II stage, Wollongong’s Daemon Foetal Harvest, appear at home on the stage peddling their brand of death metal 2.0. Blistering riffs in songs like Abducted & Compacted and Dumped In The Mangroves make this set stand out against the other bands on the bill.
Melbourne’s Die Pigeon Die set is slightly disappointing. The pitch-shifted vomit vocals don’t come off live as they do on recordings of the four-piece. And really, what’s gore grind without those crazy warbles?
The darkest thing to come from the Sunshine Coast, six-piece Excruciate, pedal their sordid tales of women and morgues with their reliable maniac intensity. Vocalists Nads and Tom trade off pig squeals through a set predominantly featuring tracks off their debut Bound & Gagged album.
Keeping the grindcore momentum going, the half hour on stage by Sydney’s Ebolie seems too quick. With songs stripped of their comedic value sans voice samples, Ebolie’s musicianship stands triumphantly on its own.
Limb From Limb take to the stage slogging through a furious death metal set that is heightened by the experienced five piece’s commanding stage presence. Playing heavily off last year’s Rip Him From His Fucking Throne, Limb From Limb’s sound is layered and punishing as ever tonight.
M.S.I. journeyed from Tasmania to Brutalfest II, and when they take the stage at 9:15pm the crowd (some of whom had been drinking steadily since the late afternoon) show their appreciation. M.S.I. blend extreme influences into fluid set that highlights the musicianship of the band.
Sinate’s follow up to their Friday show at Rosie’s shows the consistency of the New Zealand four-piece, once again putting on an amazing display of their thrash-driven death metal.
Fresh from an American tour, Melbourne five piece Fuck I’m Dead proceed to systematically tear the stage a new arsehole. Dressed like a gang of blood-thirsty Mormons, Fuck I’m Dead’s thundering grindcore whips the now sizable crowd into a frenzy and the 40 minutes of stage time they get doesn’t feel like enough.
After all the fun is over, the crowd exits, waiting for next year’s Brutalfest while trying to figure out how the hell to get back to civilisation.
TOM HERSEY
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