ANOCHT-"I hope audience members feel immersed in a wall of sound moving between dense drones and harsh noise"
ANOCHT-"I hope audience members feel immersed in a wall of sound moving between dense drones and harsh noise"
BLACK PLANET
25TH JULY TWO VENUES THREE STAGES 21 BANDS
O come, creatures of the night!
Bear witness to BLACK PLANET: A Celebration of Australian Dark Music.
Descending for the first time as a full-spectrum gathering of darkness, Black Planet hosts 3 stages across two iconic venues: The Bendigo Hotel & Nighthawks. Built for devotees of sonic extremity and shadow culture, this inaugural edition transforms the night into a living cathedral of sound, atmosphere, and chaos.
The Ossuary (Bendi Main Room) - A shrine to brutality and all things heavy
The Void (Bendi Upstairs) - A chamber devoted to noise, ambient, drone and experimental
The Black Hearts Lodge (Nighthawks) - A sanctuary of goth, darkwave, post-punk and nocturnal romance
Headlining Black Planet 2026 is THE AMENTA - One of metal's most uncategorizable acts, THE AMENTA have been synthesising the ugliest aspects of death, black, and noise into a unique maelstrom for over 25 years. Well-known across the world for their intense live shows, THE AMENTA combine speed, anger, and a weird sound with smoke and strobes to create a brutal, overwhelming experience.
Joining them across the 3 stages are: Mammon’s Throne, Hybrid Nightmares, Victoria K, Küntsquäd, Bentham’s Head, Knife, Npcede, Živa, Inaugural, Chiffon Magnifique, Blood In The Champagne, Dystropolis, Palliative, Blood of a Pomegranate, Military Position, Anocht, AnnaBortionist, Serene Ailment, Angellis Taliuu, and Koolooz.
ARTIST:ANOCHT
Anocht are a Naarm-based experimental Irish black metal project — Miotal Dhubh — whose work is inspired by the beauty and harshness of the Irish landscape and the experience of growing up in rural Ireland. Their 2023 self-titled debut explored identity, memory, belonging and collective trauma sung in Irish Gaelic; 2024's follow-up EP Ag Titim pushed the project further from straight black metal into noise, drone, ambient and electronic territory while still holding onto the tradition's bones. A genuinely rare hybrid — folk-rooted black metal reworked as Void-appropriate experimentalism.
1. The
Void is framed as a chamber, not a stage — something more enclosed,
more about atmosphere than spectacle. How do
you think about the difference between playing to
a room
and playing inside one?
I like playing smaller spaces, there is more of a closeness and intensity about that which I feel suits my live show better. In terms of playing to a room, I don’t really. I’m aware of an audience but I never see an audience member while playing, it is more like a play or ritual in that respect. It’s a strange sensation of performing while not knowing how it’s being received; in a sense the performance is a personal journey and if people can appreciate it, well that’s a bonus.
2.
Noise/drone/ambient work often lives or dies on what it does to time
— does it stretch, collapse, disappear? What's Anocht doing to the
room, ideally, forty minutes in?
I think experimental music lends itself to shorter set times, I don’t think I’ve ever played longer than 30 minutes. The nature of noise/drone/ambient sets and its usually uninterrupted sound works best as a single piece of music which adds to the intensity and impact of the music. It requires a different way of listening which I believe can only be fully appreciated for a certain time length before the intensity breaks and listeners can struggle to maintain their engagement. On that basis at around say 20 minutes in to a set I would hope the audience is fully engaged in the journey as the intensity rachets up towards the finish.
3.
Black Planet's being pitched as a "living cathedral of sound"
— where does your most recent release, or whatever's next in the
pipe, sit inside that? Anything dropping around the show we should
know about first?
I
don’t have anything coming out at this time, however, I’ve
recently finished recording the new Anocht album, which I hope to
release in the coming months. This album feels quite different to
previous releases in that while it still sits within a black metal
space it incorporates quite a few influences including shoegaze, post
rock, industrial and dream pop. I think it is a more diverse record
and in that respect I would like to think it could be described as a
‘living cathedral of sound’.
4.
This is billed as a celebration of Australian dark music
specifically. What does that qualifier — Australian — actually
mean to what Anocht does, if anything? And why does this underground
still matter to you, this far in?
Although I have lived here for a while now, I will always identify as Irish and don’t consider myself Australian or part of a particular Australian scene. I do however consider myself to be part of a community of like-minded musicians and lovers of underground music here in Melbourne. I believe in this era of late capitalism (neo liberalism or whatever we want to call it) community is the most important weapon we have to fight against a system that only sees art in terms of its monetary value.
5.
Bendigo and Nighthawks are two venues, three rooms, one night. What
are you actually trying to do to a room when you play it — what's
the physical or psychic effect you're chasing?
While maybe not totally deliberate I think I do try and create both a physical and psychic effect on listeners when performing. From a physical perspective that impact is primarily created through both volume and atmosphere where I hope audience members feel immersed in a wall of sound moving between dense drones and harsh noise. The psychic impact is harder to define. I don’t think I set out to create a certain psychic impact on audience members and it is more the mental space that I am occupying myself that is projected during the performance. There is a darkness and intensity I inhabit while performing and I hope that is projected and absorbed by the audience to create some sort of a psychic effect.
6.
You walk the line between atmospheric drone and suffocating black
metal, and performance-wise you give it your all-we the audience as
an onlooker feel that and embrace that-what are your own personal
goals in both constructing your music and performing it live. There
appears to be very ritualistic and cathartic processes in your live
shows...genuine and punishing, what does it feel like post
performing?
As it is too difficult to exactly replicate my recorded material in a live setting, I take a different approach for a live performance than I do for recording. I use samples, guitars and vocals for the live show and try to combine that with visual and performance elements, including visuals to create a total immersive experience. I want to convey the intensity of emotion I am processing and express that through both the music and the performance. Anocht is a very personal project that is informed by my heritage, upbringing and personal and collective trauma. In that sense the live performance is quite ritualistic and cathartic, and a way of expressing myself that can only be done through this type of performance. The shows are definitely draining; it can feel like an exorcism in a way, that I have left something out there. I suppose this goes back to the psychic effect I discussed earlier, and I like to think people can appreciate that and pick up on that intense expression of emotion involved in the performance.
KILLER PRICES TO BE HONEST;
Both venues: $75+BF
The Bendigo Hotel Only: $45+BF
Nighthawks Only: $35+BF
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