METAL AND HARD ROCK WITH CHRIS MARIC Hope you all had a good break and like the great Mr Hetfield USED to say, are back and ‘ready to sing loud as a motherfuck’.
THE AMENTA
FILLING THE VOID Sydney metallers The Amenta have their mammoth multimedia release, V01D – including music as well as new live footage – under their collective belt and take it to Club Led on Friday and The Gaelic on Saturday. Drum sat band member Timothy Pope down to talk about the release.
What prompted the non-traditional release? We are writing and recording our third album and we tend to disappear from public view during recording periods. We wanted to release something to let people know we were still around and to experiment with different forms. The first idea was to release it as a thumb drive but in order to contain all the content it would have had to be a huge drive and therefore too expensive. Both content and format came from our discussions about the music industry. In an age where everyone can download almost any album almost immediately, it doesn’t make sense to tie yourself to a physical release… We wanted to regain control of our material and release it in the quality and medium of our choice.
Why release VO1D free and online? I remember, when our second album n0n came out, that Listenable Records (our label) sent us our copies at the same time as they sent out promo copies for review. Before I even had my album in my hand I could download it illegally. Scumbag “reviewers” get it and upload it immediately so they can get internet kudos. It’s fucking sickening. But we realised that, while those people should get cancer, the people downloading the albums were doing exactly what we used to do with blank tapes and then CD-Rs. By offering fans a free product we could control how it was received, so we could make sure they were getting a good quality download, with all artwork and we could also open up a direct line of communication.
• 46 • THE DRUM MEDIA 26 APRIL 2011
Amenta and Ruins will be blasting some serious unholy noise at the locals.
SATURDAY
I mentioned this in the last column but that seriously funny bastard Steve Hughes will be holed up at The Factory in Marrickville from Wednesday to Saturday this week. I suggest you pick a night, grab a buddy and head down there. You won’t be disappointed. His Heavy Metal Comedy CD never gets old. Awesome stuff. In what could very well become an annual event, the second BastardFest has been announced. The Sydney leg will be on Saturday 10 September at the Sandringham Hotel. The first round of heaviness has been locked in and leading the pack at every Fest around the country are those globetrotting Bastards from Tasmania, Psycroptic in their first full nationwide appearance for well over a year. Joining them will be I Exist, Pod People, Bane Of Isildur, Ouroboros and Chaos Divine with much more to come. Expect each show to be littered with a smattering of interstate and local bands glorifying the tremendous talent heavy music in Australia has to offer. Tickets are on sale this Thursday. Those madcap blokes in Frenzal Rhomb are hitting the road for the first time in a while and are treating their fellow statesmen to a trio of gigs. Thursday sees them at Bar On The Hill along with The Optionals and Local Resident Failure. After a day off at home they head to the Wollongong Unibar again with The Optionals and Totally Unicorn, before finishing up on Sunday at the Annandale with once again, you guessed it, The Optionals. The triple bill of pure ‘80s cock rock starring Quiet Riot, Warrant and LA Guns has been cancelled. According to Quiet Riot’s drummer it’s due to a breach of contract by the promoter. No comment on that one! I guess you can always dress up like someone out of The Decline Of Western Civilization (part 2 of course) in a trial run for whenever the next bunch of old glammers try and strut through town… Yes, I can be such a prick sometimes… This week around town we have….
FRIDAY Darker Half will play their last headline show before the release of their new slab called Desensitized hits
www.utopia.com.au
The Amenta plays the final gig of their 10-date tour at The Gaelic tonight and will be joined once again by Ruins. If you haven’t got The Amenta’s digital only V01D release, head over to their dot com straight away and register for the download.
STEVE HUGHES the shelves (and/or cyberspace) at the Bald Faced Stag tonight – well, Live @ The Wall, but it’s the same thing! They will be focusing on material from their first album Duality before putting them to bed for a while. Joining them will be five-piece local prog-metal outfit Hemina, who have caused a stir in the local scene since the release of their debut EP As We Know It and have since been booked on shows all over Sydney delivering an epic live performance coupled with a high level of musicianship and songwriting. Before the prog out, expect some kick ass thrash from local crew Teratornis who have just released an EP, Back From Extinction, and before the thrash gives way to prog which gives way to the evening’s headliners, Wollongong’s Troldhaugen will get every toe a-tappin’ and head a-bangin’ with their brand of Celtic Folk Metal. Expect swords, expect ale, expect bloodshed. And after the show, the party will head to Rock Bar @ The Gaff where the official afterparty will be held. It will be half price entry ($5) for you too if you were at the gig.
If you feel like backing up at The Stag once more, those tireless dudes in Our Last Enemy will be playing for the last time in a while, unless they have new shows they haven’t told me about? Otherwise, the email they sent me weeks ago with all the tour dates ends with this show. You’ve had plenty of chances to catch their melodic goodness (their album was produced by ex Fear Factorian Christian Olde Wolbers) but if you are yet to catch them in the act, now is your chance. Seen them before but still wanna go out? Then head into Broadway because Venom will be hosting the official tour party for both The Amenta, who just played and The Haunted. The angry Swedes aren’t here until the end of May but Venom is dedicating the night to them. Lockdown, Bridges and Get Real will be wrecking the PA in the basement and they also have a bunch of cool albums being launched from Between The Buried And Me, Winds Of Plague and Hollywood Undead.
SUNDAY It’s been a little while since the Lucky Australian Tavern was featured here but it’s good to see them put on another afternoon of All Ages heaviness. For 10 bucks, you can see Tear Down The Skies open the gates from 1pm, followed by Villa Rise, To Our Forefathers and Caulfield. Perth’s Make The Suffer are up next with Pledge This having everything wrapped up by 5.15pm. Rock out and then be home in time for dinner! Sounds cool to me.
It you want to rock instead of troll (geddit, oh fark off), head up to the Town Hall Hotel in Newtown for Firearm’s very first show. They will be sharing the stage with Blacklevel Embassy, Hira Hira and Homeward Bound.
If you liked the Arnie meets metal of Austrian Death Machine, then you might like to check out pointbreakdown.bandcamp.Com where a bunch of Sydney guys have probably done serious copyright damage by metallising all the cool soundbites you know and love from that most bodacious of early ‘90s flicks, Point Break. You can score it as a free download when you click Buy Now and put in $0.
If you’re up in Newcastle, head to Club Led where The
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