DOUBLE HEADER FROM THE ABYSS: BLOOD INCANTATION & SECRET CHIEFS 3 ANNIHILATE NORTHCOTE THEATRE. Melbourne, November 8th, 2025. WORDS BY MARK J./PICS BY DAN MCKAY.
DOUBLE HEADER FROM THE ABYSS: BLOOD INCANTATION & SECRET CHIEFS 3 ANNIHILATE NORTHCOTE THEATRE
Melbourne, November 8th, 2025.WORDS BY MARK J./PICS BY DAN MCKAY.
Some nights redefine what live music can be, and then there's what went down at Northcote Theatre on a sweltering Friday in early November. Two acts operating at opposite ends of the experimental spectrum—Blood Incantation's cosmic death metal and Secret Chiefs 3's genre-obliterating mysticism—converged for a double bill that felt less like a concert and more like a ritual summoning.
SECRET CHIEFS 3: THE CEREMONY BEGINS
Trey Spruance's Secret Chiefs 3 opened the evening with the kind of precision-chaos that only decades of outsider musicianship can forge. From the moment "Spiritus Intelligentiae: Jophiel" erupted through the PA, it was clear this wasn't going to be background music.
The band moved through their set like archaeologists excavating forbidden frequencies—Middle Eastern scales colliding with surf rock tremolo, Morricone-esque drama giving way to grinding industrial passages.
"Tistrya" showcased the band's ability to make the ancient feel urgent, while "Anthropomorphosis: Boxleitner" twisted through so many time signatures it felt like watching reality glitch in real-time. The crowd—a mix of death metal heads, prog nerds, and cinema soundtrack obsessives—stood transfixed as "Vajra" built from meditative drones to full-blown ceremonial assault.
The real gut-punch came with their cover of "RFID Slaveider / Codex Alimentarius / Agenda 21," the Traditionalists deep cut transformed into a paranoid thriller soundtrack. "Bionic Caveman" followed with its signature cybernetic stomp before "The 4 (Great Ishraqi Sun)" lifted the room into something resembling transcendence.
The Bernard Herrmann cover of "Radar" was pure cinematic tension, and by the time "Brazen Serpent" closed their set, the room felt charged with something between enlightenment and dread. Secret Chiefs 3 didn't warm up the crowd—they rewired their brains.
BLOOD INCANTATION: DEATH METAL AS SPACE TRAVEL
If SC3 opened a portal, Blood Incantation flew through it at light speed. The Denver quartet has spent the last few years pushing death metal into territories most bands wouldn't dare approach, and their performance of Absolute Elsewhere in its entirety proved why they're the most important extreme metal band working today.
The lights dimmed. The synths swelled. And then "The Stargate [Tablet I]" detonated—all blast beats, churning riffs, and Paul Riedl's guttural roar cutting through the cosmic haze like a distress signal from the void. The three-part "Stargate" sequence felt less like separate songs and more like movements in a death metal symphony, each tablet revealing another layer of the band's vision: prog-death brutality meeting Tangerine Dream ambience, all filtered through a distinctly Floridian death metal lens.
The transition into "The Message" trilogy was seamless, the band navigating the album's ambitious structure with the confidence of musicians who've fully committed to their madness. Drummer Isaac Faulk was an absolute machine, his footwork during the faster passages defying human limitation while somehow maintaining the groove during the spacier interludes. Morris Kolontyrsky's bass work added a subterranean weight that you felt in your chest cavity.
"The Giza Power Plant" was the evening's centrepiece—a track that encapsulates everything Blood Incantation does right. The way they balance crushing heaviness with moments of genuine beauty, the seamless integration of synth textures into death metal's traditionally rigid framework, and the willingness to let songs breathe and evolve organically rather than just hammering from riff to riff.
The set closer, "Obliquity of the Ecliptic," was transcendent—the kind of performance that makes you understand why people travel interstate for this band. The final minutes stretched into pure ambient drift, the crowd suspended in reverent silence before erupting as the last note faded.
THE VERDICT
This wasn't just a great show—it was a statement. In an era where metal can feel increasingly calcified, trapped in genre conventions and nostalgia traps, Blood Incantation and Secret Chiefs 3 represent something vital: the belief that heavy music can still be genuinely progressive, that experimentation and extremity aren't mutually exclusive, that weirdness is a feature, not a bug.
Northcote Theatre's walls have absorbed a lot of sweat and sound over the years, but November 8th felt like one for the history books. Two bands, both uncompromising in their vision, both operating at the absolute peak of their powers, both proving that the underground still has the capacity to genuinely surprise and challenge.
If you missed this one, you fucked up. Simple as that.
For fans of: Morbid Angel, Mr. Bungle, Death, John Zorn, Timeghoul, Goblin, Portal, Sun Ra.
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cheers to CHALKY FROM
Southern Extremities Productions FOR THE ACCESS!!https://www.facebook.com/SouthernExtremeties
ALL PHOTOS BY THE GLORIOUS PHOTOKING; DAN MCKAY:
"Bringing you the music your parents warned you about since 2018 "
PLEASE REMEMBER, SUPPORT THE ARTISTS (AND US) BY SPREADING THE WORD, FOLLOWING US ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND REPOSTING OUR WORKS...SUPPORT THE UNDERGROUND AND OUR COMMUNITY. THIS IS NOT ABOUT COMMERCIAL GAINS.
(This is a non-ad, we just adore this shop)
Blacksound Records is a record store, gallery and community space located in Melbourne, Australia. They specialise in radical outsider music, and dedicate significant space to new and archival recordings on vinyl, CD and tape formats from notable extreme, experimental and noisy outsider music labels releasing metal, punk, harsh noise, weird jazz, avant-garde, electronic, ambient, hardcore, free improv, minimal, maximal, modern classical and other off-kilter music.
They always have sick musical stock, gigs and events, and Lewis, the owner, is a legend.
https://blacksound.com.au
PLEASE REMEMBER, SUPPORT THE ARTISTS (AND US) BY SPREADING THE WORD, FOLLOWING US ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND REPOSTING OUR WORKS...SUPPORT THE UNDERGROUND AND OUR COMMUNITY. THIS IS NOT ABOUT COMMERCIAL GAINS.
(This is a non-ad, we just adore this shop)
Blacksound Records is a record store, gallery and community space located in Melbourne, Australia. They specialise in radical outsider music, and dedicate significant space to new and archival recordings on vinyl, CD and tape formats from notable extreme, experimental and noisy outsider music labels releasing metal, punk, harsh noise, weird jazz, avant-garde, electronic, ambient, hardcore, free improv, minimal, maximal, modern classical and other off-kilter music.
They always have sick musical stock, gigs and events, and Lewis, the owner, is a legend.
https://blacksound.com.au
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