Hermans Bar, University of Sydney
Friday October 4, 2013 :
Friday night and the dedicated few are attending church of a different kind, Japan’s Church of Misery are headlining a night of heavy, heavy riffage and low, low frequencies at Doomsday 2013. This is my first trip to Hermans Bar on the University of Sydney campus and there’s a nice intimacy to the 275 capacity venue that suits this bill to a tee. The last year or so has been fantastic for Australian fans of doom and its associated offshoots and so many of the faces I see here in the crowd are faces I’ve seen at gigs like Saint Vitus, Unida and Om over the last few months as well.
I managed to miss Cruciform and only caught the second half of Clagg (dirty, thick sound…punishing slowness…thoroughly recommended off only half a set!) but Summonus happily bring me up to speed with their fairly swinging brand of heavy rock, though occasionally I think a second guitar would really fill out the sound. The small room handles the sheer power of the sound well, and the vocal crowd eat up the always enjoyable crawling riffage/upbeat groove dynamic of many of the Summonus songs.
Church of Misery take to the stage (I think there was a stage, I didn’t get close enough to see!) and get everyone excited with some soundcheck jamming before launching into the ominous pounding of ‘El Padrino’ from the monstrous Houses of the Unholy album. Frontman Hideki Fukasawa doesn’t stop all night, mugging at the front row punters, sharing a microphone with all and sundry and crowd surfing repeatedly over the gathering of worshipers. The riffs from Ikuma Kawabe’s Flying V are jaw dropping, the searing, psychedelic leads cutting through beautifully and the man himself oozes cool. ‘Born To Raise Hell’ raises the roof with its rapid fire drum rolling intro, its boogieing riffs and glorious singalong refrain, ‘I Motherfucker’ from The Second Coming album goes down a raw, agro treat…there is literally nothing but highlights from this gig.
On paper, nothing about Church of Misery should work; Japanese guys channelling the spirit of Black Sabbath with psychedelic colouring via songs exclusively about American and European serial killers (apart from the obligatory single cover song per album). On stage however they are a brilliant, unstoppable riffing machine and will hopefully return real soon (really, AJ Maddah should be putting these guys on the Soundwave bill to get them in front of way more people).
Reviewer: Roger Killjoy
Photographer: Rod Hunt
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc5vD4DC1CQ