EXHUMED / GUTLESS / ASHEN gig review by Mark J/Photos by Dan McKay. " Three bands, no filler, no bullshit"

 EXHUMED / GUTLESS / ASHEN gig review by Mark J/Photos by Dan McKay.Stay Gold, Brunswick | June 6

 " Three bands, no filler, no bullshit"

Brunswick delivered on a cold Saturday night. Three bands, no filler, no bullshit — just death metal in a room that smelled like spilled beer and ambition.

Ashen opened and immediately announced themselves as a band no longer feeling their way toward something. The Perth outfit has clearly found its footing with a stable lineup, and the new vocalist is the piece that was missing — commanding, precise where it needs to be, ragged where it counts. 

There's a genuine understanding of dynamics here, the kind that most death metal bands either ignore or handle clumsily. Ashen ride the Swedish melodic death metal current — think the midpoint between Dismember's raw extremity and the more considered atmospherics of early Katatonia — but they don't coast on influence. 

Certain tracks dropped into slower, heavier passages where the tension became almost cinematic, the room going still as the band tightened their grip rather than loosening it. The whole set had the feel of a band arriving at something, not still searching for it. Watch them. They are a gem of a band with aggressive mood swings that thrill the listener.

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Gutless are a different kind of proposition entirely. Where Ashen builds, Gutless obliterates. 

Their brand of old school death metal — thick, filthy, thrash-threaded and grindcore-sharpened — operates with total clarity of purpose. There is no aesthetic hedging, no nod toward accessibility, no moment where the band glances sideways to check whether the crowd is with them. 

They play with the certainty of people who have made peace with exactly what they are and have zero interest in being anything else. Punishing is the correct word. Unfiltered is the correct word. Violence, extended. For me, one of the best Aussie current metal bands around.

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Then Exhumed took the stage and demonstrated what it looks like when a band of this calibre operates on full confidence. These are American death metal lifers — Matt Harvey and company have been writing riffs since before half the room was born — and their set at Stay Gold felt like a masterclass delivered with genuine affection for the crowd. 

The dual vocal attack was particularly devastating live, a call-and-response of brutality that gives their songs a momentum most bands can't manufacture. They were funny, too — self-aware in a way that never diminished the music, only made it more human. 

Red Asphalt loomed large across the setlist alongside deeper catalogue cuts, and it all held up: tight, fierce, completely in command of the room. No unnecessary drama, no rock star removal from the moment — just a band that clearly enjoys being on stage and knows precisely how to make an audience feel it. Kudos to Matt Harvey who not long after the set finished,quickly went across and purchased the Gutless lp on vinyl. Then all of the band hung around and chatted with the audience. Amazing performance, killer humans!!!.

Don't miss them when they come back. You won't regret it.

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All awesome photos by the incredible lens of https://www.instagram.com/dannomc/