FULL OF HELL/THOU MELBOURNE TOUR. WORDS BY MARK JENKINS, PICS BY DAN MCKAY

Night one I attended solo as our sensational photographer was already booked and I arrived late due to a family function but caught the tail-end of the always awesome tour de force that is Kilat-unhinged, doomy, epic raw black metal that is gripping and moody as fuck.

Support them hard:

https://www.instagram.com/kilatbesihitam/

As the memory is blunted from time, I will summarise the two nights and also at the end give a small spiel on the magic of the improv night(sadly no pics from that).

MUNT

The brilliant opener on the second night was the incredible MUNT. Frankly, they have quickly evolved into one of Melbourne, no actually Australia's best-blackened grind/death bands.

Not only do they play as a cohesive team/unit, but the emotion drips hard on every track and the songs are engaging and abrasive. Their set stomps so fucking hard, every player is a genius in this band and the vocals are a highlight. Solid, varied, dipping in and out of the best extreme metal/hardcore genres very easily.

A full length is a must for this band. The old tracks were certainly fierce as hell, but the latest singles Somapsychosis and The Curse of Fraility were easily the set highlights. Don't miss any gigs from these masters.

DIPLOID

Next up was also another of the country's finest bands ever, Diploid.

Curse you if you have never seen this band before, consistently brilliant since birth and always releasing eclectic noisy masterpieces EVERY FUCKING TIME. Also the band are solid articulate humans of the best type and are easily one of the best live acts I have ever saw, again EVERY FUCKING TIME.

They played a mix of old bangers and many tracks off their latest masterpiece, MANTRA. As always it is a wild mix of extreme metal-mostly old grindcore and off-the-chart power violence mixed with sludge and black metal.

The band is very fuelled by both personal reflections be it mental health struggles or insights into how fucked the world is. This fuel on the overall sound always makes the set explosive, noise-ridden and captivating to experience. This was one of the best sets I have witnessed from this killer trio-Diploid is a band that just gets better and better.

And wow what an intense opening to the main bout-Thou then Full of Hell.

Overall I would say both nights by these bands were incredible, but the second show with these aforementioned support legends was the better of the two, in fact, both bands said the same: it felt more chill (hard to believe with these bands) and familiar, given it was a second gig at the same venue.

THOU:

Thou really is above all genres, they dip into deep, lengthy sludge-filled tones but are very much in a hardcore meets extreme metal tangental turn whenever the opportunity arises. You may define them by one album, but that would be a daft move.

They drip into (as discussed in our interview with Bryan) the underground DIY punk scene where they can slow down and have punchy riffs and acid-stripping vocals that are punk as fuck. Whatever they are, they fucking rule. Underpinning Bryan's psychotic looks into the audience is super solid drumming, bass that layers the pounding tone and sharp riffs.

They have great musicians and have always written solid songs that always drip with emotion. Add the spicy icing to the cake that is Bryan's unhinged and menacing vocals. He always delivers a variety of memorable vocal styles and without any doubt Umbilical is one of their best releases (my current fave).

Live the coarse interpretation of these and previous works just fucking fried my mind; just raw, pounding cathartic punk sludge with such visceral weight. Even seeing them the second time didn't lessen the impact. These crafty cats can play so tight, yet they always threaten to go off the rails. One of many secrets of this band is building tension, playing with laser-like accuracy and obliterating your ears sonically. If you know their splendid catalogue, you know that any track they pick is a gem and the varied sets show the depth of their skills and the whole kaleidoscope of moods on show. Both sets were sublime.

FULL OF HELL:

To suggest this band is a pummeling sledgehammer of audio violence is an understatement. This was unrelenting pure power violence fueled grindcore that refused to calm down. Just as Thou showcased having a brilliant catalogue helps as well as being so damn great at their job. The sets were a mix of most of their albums with a high percentage weighted toward their masterpiece Trumpeting Ecstasy as well as the new classic Coagulated Bliss and some old gems. How Dylan manages to stay on track with the set is unbelievable, not only does he dip between extreme metal and hell for leather hardcore; but he also plays noise/related effects between and during tracks.

Punishing track after track is only broken up by Dylan's very polite chat in between tracks. (Both he and Bryan are amazingly down-to-earth humans and very quiet spoken face to face!!).

I hadn't seen Full of Hell before and they ripped me a new one; this was an extreme music classic and the second set was even more unhinged. Epic shows!!!

The emotive pressure is maintained for the whole set and the sheer mix of wild aggression versus/or combined with sublime playing makes for a brilliant and fatiguing experience. Don't ever miss both bands anytime they tour.

IMPROV SET

For those uninitiated, the incredible Make It Up club at Bar Open has been dropping red-hot nights of wild, avant-garde and chaotic improv since 1998 and every single night is a gem. This one was a classic indeed, featuring members of the magnificent Whitehorse, obviously Full Of Hell and Thou plus Mariam from Diploid, Shoshana Rosenberg and Uboa(Xandra), this was how it played out:

As in the pic above, the punters wanting to go to this didn't equal the venue capacity, so it was a lucky golden ticket to see this. The funniest/ironic comment in the line to go in was from some folk who said I thought the Stay Gold ticket price was high and saved cash to see the full sets here.LOL, you missed the brief eh and funnily enough these four punters left after witnessing the first of three glorious sets. I don't have any photos of the chaos, but I will say it was one of the best quirky, intelligent, raw and satisfying gigs I have ever been to. remind me why the darker and true underground moments of Dark Mofo are so cathartic, deep and resonating. The players as the rules go were picked randomly and it was random pieces of noise, jazzy metal, sludgy doom, hardcore and everything in between-including kazoos!!.

I implore you to check all these local bands out, as they are the best of the best on so many creative levels and definitely make it to Make It Up Club asap.

Plus as previously mentioned always see FOH/Thou at any chance you get; brilliant releases and amazing live.

Much love to the fantastic human that is Greg from United Front Touring, an amazing bloke who has great insight and sure knows how to run a decent tour.

Cheers to both bands for doing interviews and also taking the time all three nights to have decent chats.

Much love to one of Melb's best gig photographers, Sir Dan McKay, more rad photos below.

REMEMBER BUY MERCH AND MUSIC FROM ALL THE ACTS AS THEY SURVIVE ON THIS AND WE ALL NEED TO SUPPORT EACH OTHER!!

PHOTO GALLERY FROM DAN MCKAY