PALLIATIVE-“New Wave without hope” and the moody ritual of opening up the Black Hearts Lodge.
PALLIATIVE-“New Wave without hope” and the moody ritual of opening up the Black Hearts Lodge.
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 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.
PALLIATIVE:
-melancholic respite through songs for a dying world-
INTERVIEW:
1. "Nocturnal romance" is a specific phrase to be filed under — darkness as seduction and ritual rather than pure aggression. Where does Palliative sit in that, and where do you push against it?
Thematically, and I don’t know if its just me, but when it comes to art that leans into the gothic subculture there is a kind of courtship between the creator and the macabre. For Palliative, songs of death, loss and despair are a plenty, and that has probably stretched beyond curiosity into fascination.
For the Black Hearts Lodge description though, the term was more loosely leaning into the gothic community’s love for the night, but I like the way you put it better.
2. Moody Synthpop and darkwave carry a lot of inherited iconography at this point — is that a language Palliative is consciously working inside, or something you're trying to strip back to zero?
To be honest, its the way it was described to me. Brett from Koolooz once asked me to pinpoint exactly what darkwave is and I don’t remember how I described it then, but “New Wave without hope” seems to fit if you asked me today. I don’t think I aimed at producing music like that, and from the first days of playing with the idea of Palliative, the sound changed greatly (all things from electro-acoustic to heavy EBM/Industrial), but this is where it has landed and where it feels most natural.
I remember seeing Empathy Test open for Covenant in Glasgow 2018, and I instantly fell in love with the songwriting and instrumentation. Maybe that was it. I was also using a Roland Fantom XR a bit at the time and was hooked on Jupiter strings and supersaws, so maybe that's it as well.
It’ll change over time, I’m sure. For instance, I’ve toyed with some neu deutsch härte inspired sounds and heavier acts like Tanzwut, Deathstars & Gothminister, but whether or not that will see the light of day is a mystery.
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?
That’s a good term, isn’t it? A place where like-minded people can congregate in a cacophony of sound from all sides. I don’t know if you’d put “Rituals of Erasure” under that banner though. I guess you could say it's the quiet words in a confessional, if we are to keep up with the religious theme of a cathedral.
Anything dropping around the show we should know about first?
Nothing new is dropping now, but there are multitudes of things spread across the grounds between life and death. One day the final nail will go into the coffin of one idea, and we can feast upon it like savage vultures and taste the flesh of it… or something like that. Earlier this year I put out “Rituals of Erasure” - a cassette-only EP that had a much more minimal sound, more akin to classic darkwave and synthpop and a deviation from my live sound. Whatever is next will probably be closer to what you’ll hear live though.
4. This is billed as a celebration of Australian dark music specifically. What does that qualifier — Australian — actually mean to what Palliative does, if anything? And why does this underground still matter to you, this far in?
In this context it is any act that calls Australia home. It's where I live so it is a part of what Palliative is. We have some absolute world class acts locally and we really need to celebrate it. Sure, international bands are great as well but you don’t have to look far to see the immense talent we have. Put on The Amenta’s “The Revelator”, Cheap Coffin’s “I Am Mara”, Military Position’s “Nothing Lasts Forever”, Eden’s “Fire & Rain”, Promaja’s “Bravo Brava” and so on and so on and so on…
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?
I just want people to enjoy life while they have it. Look, I might tell you that you are going to die, and that's true, but you’re not dead now. Live a little.
6. As well as playing, you are the wizard and the curator behind this amazing event-what inspired this mega gig and how did you pull together such a magnificent, but eclectic lineup?
The inspiration for this was a mix of a want for something as a punter and nostalgia. From a nostalgic perspective, Brewtality festival back in the day was a force for Melbourne’s metalheads. Going back and forth from the Tote to the Bendi to see band after band in the freezing mid-winter is something I remember fondly.
As a punter… well aside from The Old Bar’s Morbid Mondays (and I guess Dark Mofo), you don’t see a crossover of these parallel music scenes, particularly in Melbourne. I wanted to take a chance to celebrate that. Its a bit of a misnomer calling it “Black Planet” (name taken from the Sister’s iconic track) considering the idea is 100% local artists, but I love the image the song depicts: an apocalypse with a touch of whimsy. Kind of like “the future is bleak, all hope is gone... let's dance anyway”.
As for how the lineup came about? Maybe its a weird symbiosis forming between Black Planet and the tremendous Essence Festival happening in Canberra later this year. It seems we might share the same eclectic tastes.
KILLER PRICES TO BE HONEST;
Both venues: $75+BF
The Bendigo Hotel Only: $45+BF
Nighthawks Only: $35+BF
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