Nile + Unearth + Feed Her To The Sharks + Whoretopsy
Corner Hotel, Melbourne
21 November 2015
Review by Callum Doig
South Carolina death metal messiahs Nile and Massachusetts’ very own metalcore outfit Unearth both have quite a history in their own scenes. Who would’ve thought they’d be teaming up together for one of the heaviest tours of the year in our country? Well it happened, and there was plenty going around that tour, with Melbourne locals Feed Her to the Sharks and Whoretopsy joining the bill to help appetize the brutality all throughout the leg.
Whoretopsy didn’t have a whole lot of time to their set, and while there wasn’t a big crowd, they managed to gain a great reaction from the audience. They and their newest addition to the band, Luke Graham on guitar also showed off some well composed tunes from their latest record Never Tear Us Apart and their older discography. Having been the first time to finally witness Whoretopsy live, I was impressed. Not knowing even one track of theirs, I could see why they’ve been making a killing lately.
Feed Her to the Sharks have had many supporting opportunities in their time, but I never thought they’d ever be picked to play alongside Nile and Unearth. They provided some decent tracks, mainly off their newest record Fortitude and their debut The Beauty of Falling.
The Corner was just about full up by the time Unearth started. Unearth had a more lively crowd, orchestrating them into doing plenty of circle pits, and focused on an eleven-song set list that consisted mainly of their newer material and their sophomore effort, The Oncoming Storm. Unearth and their audience were both thrilled by the energy they shared with each other. When vocalist Trevor Phipps said that the band wanted to see if Melbourne could ‘kick all the other cities in the dick’, from what I saw, the Melbournian crowd seemed to prove themselves to Unearth how well they can keep a show rowdy as hell from start to finish.
As soon as Nile came on, there was no such thing as limits. They took the technical death metal genre to a whole new level. The sound was absolutely clear throughout the whole venue, as if you were listening to a clean, well-produced record in the genre. To see them perform without an overbearing and strained posture was immaculate.
Nile kept a pretty steady set, performing mostly two or three tracks from each record they picked. From the earlier years with Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka to the newer material of What Should Not Be Unearthed, the band honed some amazing live executions of songs such as Sacrifice Unto Sebek, Kafir!, Call to Destruction, The Howling of the Jinn and Evil to Cast Out Evil.
Being the first time seeing Nile, I hadn’t had a whole lot of expectation. But after finally getting around to seeing them onstage, I have to say, I’d be understating if I said they were good. I’ve seen plenty of great gigs this year, and as we’re getting closer to 2016, I will say this – Nile were one of the best I’ve seen all year, and it’s likely I’ll see them the next time they come back.
