KUNTSQUAD-" the truth can be brutal, our music reflects the quest to ask those difficult questions"
KUNTSQUAD-" the truth can be brutal, our music reflects the quest to ask those difficult questions"
AS PART OF:
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 night will be separated into 3 spaces:
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.
Black Planet's Ossuary lineup reads like a study in how many ways there are to be brutal — symphonic theatrics one slot, blackened death-doom the next, and crust-punk filth right in the thick of it. That range across a single room, let alone the whole three-room bill, is the real argument the event's making about what "Australian dark music" actually contains.
ARTIST: KUNTSQUAD
Küntsquäd are a Melbourne crust-metal/deathpunk four-piece fronted by Paula Condell, active since 2017 and self-described as unholy Aussie crust-death "shitlording satirists." Their 2023 self- titled debut, released via European label Wormholedeath and mastered by Jason Fuller (Blood Duster), pulled from Sepultura, Discharge and Carcass in roughly equal parts, and the band followed it in 2025 with a new release, Satans Cock. Condell's unit is built from veterans of Melbourne's underground scene — members have passed through Velvet Hammer, Damnzal, Triphammer and more — giving the band a level of road-worn chaos energy that suits an early Ossuary slot built to set the room's tone before the night gets heavier still.
INTERVIEW:
1. The Ossuary's pitched as "a shrine to brutality." Heaviness gets used as a blunt word a lot — what does brutality actually mean in what Küntsquäd do? Is it physical, sonic, emotional, all three?
The broootalitah in Küntsquäd is the shitlording of the conceptual anatomy of the constructs of our society… the ones that, once realised, evokes disgust and/or insight into the various agendas… depending on the topic at hand. We like to portray a sonic landscape that comprises of heavy sounds to create a quasi stifling atmosphere where tedium meets a slap in the face to awaken the dormant complacency of our mundane or monotonous lifestyles, only to realize that the proverbial pot of gold at the end of that rainbow is fake… … so yes, the truth can be brutal, our music reflects the quest to ask those difficult questions and then we like to watch the world implode as the processing of that information hits home or is realized. That’s the satire, that’s the shitlording. The brutal truth, as they say, isn’t always received graciously, so we figure our music needs to be as abrasive as that or disturbing enough sonically to evoke some sort of response … we don’t care if it’s revulsion, surprise, angst, love, hate or anything else that floats your boat.
2. What do you bring into that room that nobody else on the Ossuary bill is bringing?
Kunty vibes! There’s an old school kind of aggression and rawness that exposes our vulnerabilities as musicians; it’s meant to be abrasive because it reflects the environment we come from and the philosophy of our consciousness as entertainers and musicians in a saturated world of palatable auditory consumption. In the content and construct of the songs, there’s the element of chaos reflecting our self-deprecation and our view of the world; sometimes there’s the contrasting breakdowns which offer some relief in rhythmic composure … but only as a buffer to the next assault. You can expect brutal and extreme because we come from that mindset… It’s a rejection of the ‘vanillarized’ music industry as a whole, where the outcasts are profiled as sitting somewhere between extreme death, black or combos of everything more challenging
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?
We are probably more like the cathedral of the dead (insert chuckle).. where the heaviness of the soundscape summons those demons that cannot be exorcised to arise and plunder away unfiltered to haunt your mother’s stepsisters and brothers. We have just recently added a tune (cover) to exemplify this interest in all things dark at the end of our set. We’ve only played this once before, but it may appear again at the end of our set. Those who know, once they hear it, will know.
4. This is billed as a celebration of Australian dark music specifically. What does that qualifier — Australian — actually mean to what Küntsquäd does, if anything? And why does this underground still matter to you, this far in?
By default, none of us are strangers to the underground because it’s the sort of music that is by default polarising… it isn’t meant for mass consumption or popularity. Hence, to be seen as subversive, satirical or even confronting results in an automatic sidelining. An opinion or perception that is challenged is often fought with the danger of being driven further into the rabbit holes. We applaud the Australian sense of humour; ours happens to be darker than what is apparent; however, the sentiments are aligned. We like to think our sonic landscape is dark enough to make your goat blush, but for us it’s more a question of sitting somewhere amongst it all in the extreme end of the scale to reinforce that this is not meant to be pretty or homogenous. We like it unfiltered and in your face, evoking primal visceral reactions to the content and presentation.
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?
We like to assault people's ears with pure, unadulterated female-fronted brutal angst. One that often has people wondering about the monsters that live inside her. There's a demon that lives inside all of us .. It speaks volumes and sometimes manifests as a woman… either way it’s a mystery as to why and wherefore, but the beast, it lives, and no glasses are needed to observe its monstrous grotesqueness sabotage the action on stage.
6. KuntSquad have progressively got massively heavier with each release, and it is just sheer power overload with each gig and album. What is the rationale behind this and, more so, where does your never-ending drive and motivation come from...because you seem unbeatable given the quality in both recorded and live domination?
We have evolved due to necessity and a strong desire to be perceived the way it was always intended. It’s not over till it’s over attitude is what this is about; certainly I ( Paula) have a point to prove when it comes to older women challenging the presumption of longevity only being something reserved or exclusive for the other sex.
We hope to represent the marginalised, disenfranchised women, girls, and everyone else who’s ever felt that element of dejection and exclusion… Our current release is closer to the demon we want to capture, but our quest for more is more within the extreme and heavy soundscape. It’s probably akin to an unquenchable obsession to create something different sonically so that we challenge ourselves to be more malleable to changes. So this is the motivation. It is an ongoing quest to try pushing those proverbial boundaries of our own comfort zones to see if we can actually achieve some level of satisfaction in this department.
LINKS:
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SO GRAB A TICKET ASAP AND START WORKING OUT HOW YOU CAN SEE EVERY BAND...SOMEHOW
KILLER PRICES TO BE HONEST;
Both venues: $75+BF
The Bendigo Hotel Only: $45+BF
Nighthawks Only: $35+BF
ALL PICS ARE FROM THE ARTIST OR BAND'S SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES
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