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[LIVE REVIEW] Brewtality, The Bendigo Hotel & The Tote, Melbourne

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Brewtality Festival
The Bendigo Hotel & The Tote, Collingwood
Saturday, August 6th, 2016
Review by: Callum Doig
Photos by: Matt Allan courtesy of Desert Highways

Brewtality: The annual celebration of metal, rock and beer is a local favourite amongst Melbournian metalheads. After the several years of success, Brewtality returned with an all-new lineup featuring Fireballs, Dreadnaught, Orpheus Omega, Dead City Ruins and much more from across the country at the festival’s two homes: The Tote and Bendigo Hotel.

Heading to The Bendigo first, I caught the mighty Decimatus. Despite them stating they had “fuck all practice”, they gained a fair amount of attention even while the event was still young. They gave their usual tracklisting during their set, slipped in a new song and announced they’d be recording in September.

From what I thought was overweight and more metallised GG Allin who came back from the dead, Sydney locals Daemon Pyre were the next ones on the bill. Daemon Pyre came forward with an ‘in-your-face’ persona. While it wasn’t that much of an interesting set, the energy from their frontman did spark a little more of an imitable personality to their presence.

Join the Amish were one of my personal highlights. They packed quite a heavy smack in their hardcore punk hymns about Centrelink and pubs being closed down. Other than that, Join the Amish also gave some songs that went no more than about a minute and a half with the last few tracks they performed.

Frankenbok were probably the best to be seen at The Tote. Seeing the ex-vocalist of Scar the Surface now be part of Frankenbok was quite refreshing, as he fitted the image along with his aggressive vocals. Considering they had one of the biggest crowds of the evening, there was a lot to be expected from the band. That being said, Frankenbok’s thrashy tone blared across the room and sounded just as incredible as their recording sessions were.

But as far as more extremity and brutality goes, Odiusembowel excreted a series of grindcore songs with names I couldn’t even keep up with, due to the length of the titles and how hilariously bizarre they were. A typical grindcore group, I’d say. The only downside to this was that they performed to a very small crowd in the Bendigo with very little reception from them.

Suiciety may be getting old, but they’ve still got it, despite their age. Reminding me mostly of Helmet, Suiciety had their set going wild and still felt young and reckless!

Aboriginal quintet South East Desert Metal also had something fascinating going on. They had a stoner sound going in a ‘driving down the highway at full speed’ kind of tone, much heavier than expected.

Darker Half, while they were clashing with South East Desert Metal, catching the last few minutes of them were still mindblowing. Having nothing more than an energetic aura and enthusiastic dignity in their music, Darker Half spat out intense, and highly fervent power metal along with an Iron Maiden cover of ‘Aces High’.

I’d be understating if I said that Orpheus Omega were nothing short of incredible. While many of the bands provided intense and memorable sets at the festival, I feel that Orpheus Omega had the upper hand on this one, purely because of their ability to execute some of the most interesting melodic death metal music in Australian music. Their charisma sent chilling vibes all throughout the patrons. They even took the opportunity to get their crowd to attempt a circle pit around the sound desk and the pole, along with their keyboardist joining in on it.

Dead City Ruins weren’t originally on the bill and replaced Heaven The Axe due to a last minute illness. Being no stranger to the stage Dead City Ruins threw everything at the short, but solid, rock set. Singer, Jake, unexpectedly Wiffen through himself into the crowd and moshed like a fuckin’ mad man.

Dreadnought rounded out the night with their heavy attitude and angst amongst a patient and warm crowd.

All in all, Brewtality does it again![/vc_column_text][vc_masonry_media_grid grid_id=”vc_gid:1470873069739-0d11a8ca-9d5f-0″ include=”30708,30709,30710,30711,30712,30713,30714,30715,30716,30717,30718,30719,30720,30721,30722,30723,30724,30725,30707″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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