NEX, Newcastle
Saturday October 27, 2018 :
We are quite lucky as Australians in regards to our heavy music scene, and even luckier to see these three acts together on the same bill. All three bands represent different aspects of the genre and the diverse crowd showed that. I’m an unashamed lover of metalcore and this is the best lineup I’ve ever seen outside of UNIFY festival, and to see it at my local is an extra bonus. Unfortunately, the night was soured by the questionable actions of a few.
Even in the heavy music scene, THY ART IS MURDER are infamous for being HEAVY. Their blast beats and breakdowns are absolutely fucking filthy, and several attendees who had obviously never experienced deathcore looked absolutely disgusted in the best way. Unfortunately a last minute set time change meant that many fans didn’t arrive until halfway through their very short set, but the mosh began in earnest when frontman CJ McMahon instigated a huge wall of death. ‘Holy Wars’, ‘Reign of Darkness’ and ‘Slaves Beyond Death’ were all massive, and some extreme male bonding ensued where roundhouse kicks and spinning backfists are the dance of choice. One guy who copped a accidental blow to the face was shaking hands with his attacker seconds later. There’s a certain camaraderie in the heavy music scene where this risk is an unspoken rule when entering the mosh and anyone in trouble is quickly helped out, and THY ART’s crowd was a great example of that.
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE are the unquestioned pioneers of metalcore, and the fact that they’re the support act on the bill shows just how massive the headliners have become. Frontman Jesse Leach has an amazing voice, and their guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz is like Angus Young in that he does. not. stop. moving. Killswitch have a much more melodic sound compared to the other bands tonight and had some huge singalongs to ‘The End Of Heartache’, ‘Hate By Design’ and ‘Strength Of The Mind’. Killswitch are an amazingly “tight” band and Adam is the most influential guitarist in the genre by far, and he’s flawless in a live setting. They finished off with their massive songs ‘My Curse’ and ‘In Due Time’. I was a bit sad not to see their famous cover of Ronnie Jame Dio’s ‘Holy Diver’ but I guess they save that for their own headline shows. It was clear that many attendees had come just to see Killswitch, and they easily could’ve been mistaken for the headlining band if it weren’t for the massive ominous stage production behind them waiting to be unleashed. Shortly after the set finished, the number of security guards at front of stage doubled and a large amount of medical staff appeared at both sides of stage, which seemed excessive at the time. Ooh boy was I wrong.
I’m not entirely sold on PARKWAY DRIVE’s stadium rock aspirations but am still a die hard fan, and they have made it clear before this tour that this production is their full creative vision realised. The set was definitely unforgettable, for good reasons and bad. Some deafening pyro signalled that the carnage was about to begin, and opener ‘Wishing Wells’ instantly became one of my favourite Parkway songs. New album ‘Reverence’ clearly reflects something deeply personal for frontman Winston McCall, and it shone through when he screamed his lungs out on this one. It was at this point that I realised that regular guitarist Jeff Ling was absent, and Thy Art Is Murder guitarist Andy Marsh was filling in. Quite a surreal moment of deja vu for this reviewer considering that when I last reviewed Parkway Drive at this venue he filled in also. Andy is a consumate professional and handles Jeff’s lead guitar duties with ease, and is classy as fuck. Respect.
‘Prey’ and ‘Carrion’ followed, and the mosh was about as crazy as it gets. Unfortunately this was not a good thing. I saw several smaller blokes and girls cop the receiving end of some careless guys trying to start a push pit in the quiet parts of the crowd, despite the massive push pit nearby. Compared to Parkway’s last gig at the same venue in 2015, this was appalling, and there was some absolute idiots in the crowd having a great time throwing their body weight at people half their size, including one poor guy who got tackled to the ground from behind with no warning simply because he was standing in the wrong spot. One has to wonder if these guys didn’t want to run at someone their own size and wanted some easy targets instead.
Winston signalled to staff that someone in the crowd was in trouble after ‘Vice Grip’, and the room quickly realised that something serious had occurred when techies rushed onto stage to talk to the band. Winston did his best to calm the crowd and the band deserve some special praise for handling the situation so well and doing the right thing for their fans. The house lights then came on while medical staff worked to get someone who was badly injured out of the crowd. The extended hiatus set the room afire with gossip, and I overheard everything from eyeballs hanging out of someone’s head to a broken spine (turns out it was a fractured jaw and a serious head laceration from a stray elbow). Once the blood was cleaned up and the poor bloke was stretchered out, we were ready to kick off again. Get well soon Todd Heeps!
It was an unavoidable side effect that the 25 minute break put a dampener on the rest of the evening, with Winston stating that their set would be cut short. Any disappointment disappeared when ‘Idols and Anchors’ warmed the crowd back up, followed by the ridiculous drum-fill intro for ‘Karma’ which was insanely good. I was ready for more.
Just when I thought I had enough surprises to write about, the band left the stage and a 4-piece orchestra stepped out to play the string-intro to ‘Writings on the Wall’. Several gasps of “what the fuck” echoed in earshot, and metal purists’ faith was tested over a 2 song mini-set of indulgent stadium rock. The band appeared on risers high above the crowd during the song, and then ‘Shadow Boxing’ gave me a sight I will likely never see again: crowd surfers being caught by security within arms reach of a violinist headbanging while reading sheet music. I applaud the band for going all-out with this tour but this didn’t hit the mark for me, but I also think I was still a little salty about possibly missing out on some classics during the unplanned break. That being said, it was my wife’s absolute favourite part of the gig so I guess it wasn’t for me. The main set finished with the ever-catchy ‘Wild Eyes’.
The band came back for an encore, and we got to see the much-talked about pyro rig get fired up for ‘Crushed’. Unfortunately the dickheads in attendance had not had enough of being dickheads, with several deciding that running on stage while there were literal flame throwers spewing instant death was a good idea. Some panicked roadies did their best to manage the situation, to prevent yet another serious injury. This also resulted in the pyro getting turned off for the rest of the gig. Great job.
‘Bottom Feeder’ ended the set which was a good thing, as I then saw two more people get wheeled/stretchered out. The real stars of the night were the medical staff, who earned their money and then some.
Reviewer : Matthew Glen
Photographer : David Youdell
PARKWAY DRIVE
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE
THY ART IS MURDER
